Florida - Nothing unusual, only the length of time. Nobody saw anything wrong. Nobody did anything wrong. Nobody saw anybody else do anything wrong

Friends,

Monday's meeting of the Governor's Commission on the Administration Lethal Injection featured testimony from expert medical witnesses.

The first witness was not a medical expert. Brenda Whitehead, a D.O.C. employee who saw the execution from the witness gallery, said she saw nothing unusual except for the length of time. Thus far, D.O.C. employees have been in lockstep with their accounts of the execution. Nothing unusual, only the length of time. Nobody saw anything wrong. Nobody did anything wrong. Nobody saw anybody else do anything wrong. That Angel Diaz was snoring throughout the execution has also been the repeated assertion since the initial D.O.C. official statement immediately following the execution on December 13.

Dr. Bruce Goldenberger, Director of Toxicology and Professor at the University of Florida, went through the toxicology report that is part of the autopsy report on Angel Diaz. He said that toxicology results are inconclusive after too much time has expired. He did state, however, that the level of Sodium Thiopental (anesthetic and first drug given) was lower in Diaz body than in previous post execution toxicologies he has prepared. He stated that samples from the foot long blisters on Diaz's arms were not taken because the blisters had burst.

Dr. Mark Heath, Professor of Anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center, testified next. Dr. Heath presented a slide show depicting problems with lethal injection executions in other states. He was aggressively quized by some panelists about his participation in court proceedings as an expert witness for death row inmates. This was done in an attempt to show that his testimony was sympathetic or biased towards those executed. Dr. Heath presented information that was disturbing and disconcerting to the Commissioners, particularly those who had assumed that mistakes are rare and that lethal injection was a routine, professional, painless medical-like procedure. Dr. Heath stated that in his opinion, Angel Diaz was not properly anesthetized. Dr. Heath explained that the "Fish out of water" description by some witnesses was a classic sign that the person is not properly anesthetized and is being suffocated by paralyzing drugs.

Up next was Dr. Wiliam Hamilton, the Medial Examiner who conducted the autopsy on Angel Diaz and eighteen others after Florida lethal injection executions. He noted that Diaz had very severe coronary artery disease. When asked by Sen. Victor Crist if this would have prolonged his death, Dr. Hamilton replied that this would have hastened his death by several minutes. There was no evidence of liver disease. Diaz's veins were not abnormal. He stated that the foot-long blisters on Diaz's arms were most likely caused by the anesthetic, Sodium Thiopental not going into his veins.

Dr. Hamilton also directly answered a question about reports of Diaz snoring by saying that it would be impossible to snore if the paralyzing drug, pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) was fully working. He said a human being would not be able to breathe or move in any way, including moving their lips or eyes, much less snore.

He said that there were some other unusual and unique findings in this autopsy. He noted jugular veinous distension (the veins in the neck were greatly expanded). He said this could be expected if someone had experienced prolonged cardiac arrest with irregular heartbeat. He also noted that the needles and cannulae in both arms were stuck entirely through Diaz's veins at an angle of more than 45 degrees.

Dr. Hamilton stated that he believed that Diaz did not get any amount of any drugs into his veins. He said could not tell if Diaz was in pain, that only Diaz would know.

The next and perhaps final meeting will be held Februray 19 in Tampa. 10AM in the Santa Rosa Room on the Office Level of the Tampa Airport Marriott Hotel.

The most ardent Death Penalty promoters on the panel were adamant about to call a prosecutor-friendly Anesthesiologist to testify. Dr. Mark Dershwitz, professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Massachusetts and a frequent expert state corrections lethal injection witness, is being contacted to testify at the Feb. 19 meeting.

Public comment might be taken at this meeting.

For those groups wishing to submit written statements on lethal injection, the deadline is Feb 20 and they can be sent to the following address:

Governor's Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection
c/o Peter Cannon
3801 Corporex Park Drive Suite 210
Tampa, FL 33619

************************************************************************************************************

Press coverage. More available at FADP.org. DP in the NEWS:

http://www.fadp.org/news/gs-20070213/

http://www.fadp.org/news/spt-20070213/

http://www.fadp.org/news/ll-20070213/

************************************************************

Those attending Monday's meeting included, Sol Otero - Angel Diaz niece, Maria Nieves - Angel Diaz sister, Jeanne Rewa - EJUSA, DP activists Martha Mortenson, Rosalie Bolin, Dwight Lawton and Mary Berglund - Florida League of Women Voters, Gavin Lee - Univ of Cent. Fla., D. Todd Doss and Caroline Kravath - CCRC and me.

Shine the light,

Mark Elliott
Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org
mark@fadp.org

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King