The executioner's wrong

Jan 4th 2007 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

Florida, California and Maryland suspend lethal injections

ON DECEMBER 13th, Angel Diaz, a convicted murderer from Florida, became the latest victim of a botched lethal injection. The doctor who served as executioner bungled the first set of injections, sliding the needle straight through the vein and pumping the toxic chemicals directly into the underlying flesh. Mr Diaz writhed, grimaced, and attempted to speak until a second dose killed him. That was 34 minutes later; the execution should take only a fraction of that.

Two days later, Jeb Bush, in his last month as governor, suspended all executions in the state. He also set up a commission to consider whether Florida's lethal injections are constitutional.

Other states are now mulling over the same question. Lethal injection is the standard method of execution in 37 of the 38 states that have the death penalty. It is clearly less gruesome than any of its predecessors. It is obviously better than electrocution, for example, which has caused several prisoners to burst into flames. But a growing number of states think that is setting the bar too low.

This summer, Missouri halted executions after the doctor who supervised them admitted that he was dyslexic and had, on a previous occasion, given an inmate only half the recommended dose of anaesthesia. On the day that Florida halted its executions, a federal judge in California ruled that the state's use of lethal injections amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” and was therefore unconstitutional. And a few days later, a Maryland appeal court suspended capital punishment there on the grounds that the state's Execution Operations Manual should have been subjected to public hearings before being adopted.

These are not unqualified triumphs for opponents of the death penalty. The Florida, California and Maryland moratoriums were prompted by procedural issues that may be easily resolved. Florida's new governor, Charlie Crist, says he will keep Mr Bush's moratorium in place until March, when the commission is due to present its findings. But Mr Crist is not known for his clemency. His nickname is Chain Gang Charlie.

And capital punishment still attracts broad support in America. According to an October 2006 Gallup poll, two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty for people convicted of murder. That figure has hardly budged since the late 1990s.

Still, although 38 states have the death penalty, not many use it. In 2006, America had 53 executions, its smallest number for 10 years; and Texas was responsible for nearly half of them. Only 14 states executed anyone at all. Some states use the death penalty so rarely that a moratorium would be almost redundant. New Jersey, for example, has not carried out an execution since 1963 and probably never will again. On January 2nd, a panel of legislators there recommended that the state abolish the death penalty altogether.

Lethal Injection

Friday 5 January 2007