Florida's 34 - minute execution fires up debate

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Florida's 34-minute execution fires up debate
By Michael Peltier Dec 14, 2006, 19:29 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Florida - Death penalty critics on Thursday asked the Florida Supreme Court to halt lethal injections after a convicted killer took 34 minutes to die from the procedure and witnesses said he appeared to suffer.

Angel Diaz, sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a Miami strip club manager, died on Wednesday after receiving a three-drug cocktail used by Florida and other death penalty states that administer lethal injections.

Prison officials had to give Diaz the drugs twice and witnesses to the execution reported he appeared to grimace, gasp for breath and contort as he lay strapped to the gurney during the procedure that usually brings death in minutes.

Florida Department of Corrections officials said Diaz was unconscious and suffered no pain. They said the execution took longer than most because Diaz, 55, had a liver condition that slows the drugs' effects.

Florida lawmakers voted to switch to lethal injection in 2000 following a series of bungled executions using the state's electric chair, known as 'Old Sparky.' In the most notorious incident, flames shot from the head of a prisoner during an execution in 1997.

In the petition filed on Thursday on behalf of death row inmates, lawyers called on the high court to order an autopsy and to declare lethal injection unconstitutional because 'it involves the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain contrary to contemporary standards of decency.'

PROTOCOL BLASTED

Wednesday's execution 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.

'The execution has underscored the ineffective protocol that was adopted in August,' said Martin McClain, an attorney and death penalty critic who has handled scores of death penalty cases.

Under the protocol, the inmate is given sodium pentothal to render him unconscious. Next, pancuronium bromide is given to paralyze the lungs. Potassium chloride is then injected to stop the heart, but is said to be painful as it works its way through the circulatory system.

Reporters for Florida media and an attorney representing death row inmates witnessed the execution and described a scene in which Diaz appeared to thrash and medical personnel were called in to administer more drugs.

'During the time Mr. Diaz appeared to be speaking, it was my observation that he was in pain,' Neal Dupree of Capital Collateral Regional Counsel testified in the petition. 'His face was contorted and he grimaced on several occasions. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down continually, and his jaw was clenched.'

Critics say state officials were aware of Diaz's liver condition and should have modified the procedure to ensure Diaz would be unconscious when the third drug was given.

'It's clear they inflicted pain on him, and it's clear that they knew ahead of time about his condition,' McClain said. 'The only logical conclusion is there was gross negligence here.'