Florida, California suspend executions

By RON WORD, Associated Press Writer Dec 15, 2006

OCALA, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after
a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the
insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death
earlier this week.

Separately, a federal judge in California extended a moratorium on
executions in the nation's most populous state, declaring that the
state's method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on
cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled in San Jose that California's
"implementation of lethal injection is broken, but it can be fixed."

In Florida, medical examiner Dr. William Hamilton said Wednesday's
execution of Angel Nieves Diaz 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.

Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, refused to say whether he
thought Diaz died a painful death.

"I am going to defer answers about pain and suffering until the
autopsy is complete," he said. He said the results were preliminary
and other tests may take several weeks.

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.

"All the drugs would be much slower to affect the body because
they're not going into a blood vessel. They're going under the skin.
They take a long time to be absorbed by the body," said Garman, who
said he was ethically opposed to lethal injection.

An inmate would remain conscious for a longer period of time and
would likely be aware of increased difficulty breathing and pain
caused by angina, the interruption of blood flow to the heart, he
said.

Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at Ohio State
University, said the injection would cause excruciating pain "like
your arms are on fire."

Bush created a commission to examine the state's lethal injection
process in light of Diaz's case, and he halted the signing of any
more death warrants until the panel completes its final report by
March 1.

The governor said he wants to ensure the process does not constitute
cruel and unusual punishment, as some death penalty foes argued
bitterly after Diaz's execution. Florida has 374 people on death row;
it has carried out four executions this year.

Governor elect-Charlie Crist planned to continue the moratorium when
he takes office in January, spokeswoman Vivian Myrtetus said.

Fogel said the California case raised the question of whether the
three execution drugs administered by the San Quentin State Prison
are so painful that they "offend" the ban on cruel and unusual
punishment. Fogel said he was compelled "to answer that question in
the affirmative."

California has been under a capital punishment moratorium since
February, when Fogel called off the execution of rapist and murderer
Michael Morales amid concerns that condemned inmates might suffer
excruciating deaths.

Fogel found substantial evidence that the last six men executed at
San Quentin might have been conscious and still breathing when lethal
drugs were administered.

Lethal injection is the preferred execution method in 37 states. Last
month, a federal judge declared unconstitutional Missouri's injection
method, which is similar to California's.

The
U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions — by lethal injection,
hanging, firing squad, electric chair and gas chamber — despite the
pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether
the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.

Diaz, 55, was put to death for murdering the manager of a Miami
topless bar during a holdup in 1979.

The medical examiner's findings contradicted the explanation given by
prison officials, who said Diaz needed the second dose because liver
disease caused him to metabolize the lethal drugs more slowly.
Hamilton said that although there were records that Diaz had
hepatitis, his liver appeared normal.

Executions in Florida normally take no more than about 15 minutes,
with the inmate rendered unconscious and motionless within three to
five minutes. But Diaz appeared to be moving 24 minutes after the
first injection, grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and
appearing to mouth words.

As a result of the chemicals going into Diaz's arms around the elbow,
he had an 12-inch chemical burn on his right arm and an 11-inch
chemical burn on his left arm, Hamilton said.

Florida Corrections Secretary James McDonough said the execution team
did not see any swelling of the arms, which would have been an
indication that the chemicals were going into tissues and not veins.

Diaz's attorney, Suzanne Myers Keffler, reacted angrily to the findings.

"This is complete negligence on the part of the state," she said.
"When he was still moving after the first shot of chemicals, they
should have known there was a problem and they shouldn't have
continued. This shows a complete disregard for Mr. Diaz. This is
disgusting."

Earlier, in a court hearing in Ocala, she had won an assurance from
the attorney general's office that she could have access to all
findings and evidence from the autopsy. She withdrew a request for an
independent autopsy.

David Elliot, spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty, said experts his group had contacted suspected that
liver disease was not the explanation for the problem.

"Florida has certainly deservedly earned a reputation for being a
state that conducts botched executions, whether its electrocution or
lethal injection," Elliot said. "We just think the Florida death
penalty system is broken from start to finish."

Florida got rid of the electric chair after two inmates' heads caught
fire during executions in the 1990s and another suffered a severe
nosebleed in 2000. Lethal injection was portrayed as a more humane
and more reliable process.

Twenty people have been executed by lethal injection in Florida since
the state switched from the electric chair in 2000.

___

Associated Press writers David Kravets and Marcus Wohlsen contributed
to this report from San Francisco.