Michael Peltier: Another look at capital punishment

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Michael Peltier: Another look at capital punishment

By Michael Peltier

Monday, December 18, 2006

TALLAHASSEE — Death penalty opponents won a round last week as state officials again halted the use of the state's ultimate penalty following a botched execution with national implications.

For those who missed it, death row inmate Angel Diaz died last week after receiving a three-drug cocktail used by Florida and other death penalty states that administer lethal injections. The drugs did their job. The trouble is it took 34 minutes to execute the man sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a Miami strip club manager.

To many, the delay pales to the death of Diaz's victim or the terror other employees experienced as they waited locked into a restroom not knowing if they would be next. But the apparent failure takes center stage to the scores of attorneys, experts and victim advocates from across the country who will now spend months investigating and litigating whether the procedure is unconstitutionally cruel.

Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough said execution team members in initial interviews said Diaz suffered no pain. But that observation clashes with that of witnesses outside the sound-proof room who reported that Diaz appeared to grimace, gasp for breath and contort as he lay strapped to a gurney during the procedure that usually brings death in minutes.

Both needles used in the procedure had been improperly placed or both punctured veins shortly after the execution began. Instead of coursing their way through the circulatory system, the drugs largely ended up just beneath the skin, slowing their collective effect.

"The main problem in the conduct of this execution procedure was that the fluids to be injected were not going into a vein," medical examiner William Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, told reporters last week.
The execution immediately added fuel to the debate over lethal injection as states grapple with what critics call an uncertain science.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January held up Florida's executions until September, when the state resumed capital punishment after formalizing its procedure.

For the second time in less than a year, Florida has suspended executions and has formed a commission to investigate. California has also called a halt to executions as it reviews.

States have responded differently to the high court's ruling. Florida resumed its execution schedule. Other states chose to halt their schedule until the courts determine whether their procedures violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Those that chose not to question their procedure in light of the Supreme Court ruling may now be forced to whether they like it or not.