Recommendations coming on reducing errors in executions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Opponents of Florida's death penalty say there needs to be more scrutiny of the lethal injection process.

The commission examining last year's botched lethal injection execution will recommend a handful of changes to Florida's death row procedures this week.

But the panel will leave the hardest questions about the death of convicted killer Angel Diaz unanswered.

Members of the commission say conflicting information from execution witnesses, prison staff and medical experts makes it hard to arrive at any definitive findings about the December 13th execution. That execution took twice as long as normal and required a rare second dose of lethal chemicals.

Critics of the death penalty system in Florida say the commission's inability to determine what happened during the execution of Angel Diaz is evidence that there needs to be more scrutiny of the execution process.

Sheila Hodges of the Florida Catholic Conference calls it a “horrendous, painful and troubling experience.”