Lawmakers: News of botched executions unlikely to end practice
PIERRE - South Dakota lawmakers who plan to change the state's execution method have plenty to consider.
Confronting news of inadequately trained executioners working in unkempt rooms, a federal judge late last month ruled California's execution procedure was unconstitutional and extended a moratorium on executions in that state.
It marked the latest in a string of such challenges nationally to lethal injection - the most common execution method, used in 37 states - and came as Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions there after a bungled execution in December. Missouri's injection method, which is similar to California's, was declared unconstitutional in November by a federal judge.
Legal questions about the death penalty in other states are unlikely to stall South Dakota's plan to rewrite its lethal injection law, a legislative leader says. Most South Dakotans favor the death penalty and support legislative efforts to clarify the protocols used for injections, House Republican Leader Larry Rhoden of Union Center said this week.
But, he said, "I think a lot of the stuff happening in other states (could) influence the way we in statute leave authorities enough latitude for the protocols to adjust to best methods and changing technology."
Last summer, Gov. Mike Rounds delayed the planned execution of convicted killer Elijah Page. The governor said a conflict between whether the injection should involve two or three drugs - a conflict created by a difference between state law and the procedure prison officials planned to use for the Page execution - prompted the stay. The governor ordered the delay, saying it would give legislators time to correct the conflict. Page's execution now is scheduled for early July.
Rep. Chuck Turbiville, R-Deadwood, had planned to co-sponsor a bill to fix the state's death penalty protocols. He and other sponsors backed off when Rounds and Attorney General Larry Long made it known they were working on such a bill.
Turbiville, whose legislative district includes the site of the murder for which Page was convicted, expects lawmakers to make whatever changes are needed to assure that the lethal injection law is workable and adaptable to changing methods, he said this week.
The issues in Florida and other states shouldn't affect that, Turbiville said.
"I read about that deal in Florida, where there were indications of some muscle response or body functions," he said. "I don't think that's going to be a major issue here. It is a thought, but not enough for South Dakota to do away with the death penalty entirely or put it on hold."
Some legislators have predicted that opponents of capital punishment will see the bill to update the state's injection law as a way to introduce a proposal to repeal the law entirely. Rhoden says that could happen, but that isn't unusual and it isn't likely to be successful.
"Anybody can make an attempt to change any law, whether there's an issue pending or not," he said. "I don't think that's something the (Legislature) will agree to do."
Democrat Garry Moore, who will be a House member this session after eight years in the Senate, doubts either residents or legislators would agree to repeal the death penalty.
Moore voted in favor of repeal in the 2004 session, but he said he'd probably vote to keep capital punishment.
"It's something people want, reserved for heinous crimes," Moore said. "I don't see much support for getting rid of it."
He said he'd like the lethal injection law written in the most general terms legally possible so that procedures can change if new methods are developed.
When lawmakers voted to repeal the death penalty in 2004, the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 4-3 and failed on the Senate floor 27-8.
A four-day hearing in September revealed that California prison guards were inadequately trained to participate in executions. One prison official who was part of the execution team had been sanctioned for smuggling drugs into San Quentin.
In Florida, Angel Nieves Diaz, 55, was put to death in December for murdering the manager of a Miami topless bar during a holdup in 1979.
Medical examiner Dr. William Hamilton said Diaz's execution took 34 minutes - twice as long as usual - and required a rare second dose of lethal chemicals because the needles were inserted clear through his veins and into the flesh in his arms. The chemicals are supposed to go into the veins.
Missing a vein when administering the injections would cause "both psychological and physical discomfort - probably pretty severe," said Dr. J. Kent Garman, an emeritus professor of anesthesia at the Stanford School of Medicine in California.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Terry Woster at 605-224-2760.
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