Florida, California suspend death penalty
Saturday, December 16
- Organization: RxPG News
Washington, Dec 16 - Florida Governor Jeb Bush issued a moratorium on the death penalty following the 34-minute-long death by lethal injection of a prisoner, while a federal judge also effectively banned capital punishment in California.
The two decisions were not related, but both were based on new suggestions that the execution of prisoners by lethal injection - used by a number US states that allow the death penalty - amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Jeb Bush issued an executive order Friday suspending executions and appointed a commission to investigate the use of lethal injections, after the botched execution of 55-year-old Angel Nieves Diaz Wednesday.
'Until the Commission has issued its findings and recommendations and the appropriate revisions to the Department of Corrections' procedures and protocols have been adopted ... no further death warrants shall be signed,' the order said, giving the commission until March to complete its report.
It should have taken only a few minutes for Diaz to fall unconscious after being administered with the lethal injection, but instead he fought off death for a full 34 minutes, The Miami Herald reported.
An autopsy report Friday said the lethal injection needle had missed the main blood vessel in Diaz's arm and was instead injected into arm tissue, causing his death to take about twice as long as usual and forcing doctors to inject a second lethal dose.
Diaz was sentenced to death 27 years ago for the murder of a Miami topless bar manager.
In California, US District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel banned execution by lethal injection saying the method violated the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling effectively halts the administering of capital punishment in the country's most populous state, where lethal injections with a cocktail of three deadly drugs are the only method of execution - as is the case in Florida.
California has over 650 men and women on death row, the largest number in the US, but has executed 12 prisoners since 1977, according the US Department of Justice.
Florida has executed more than 60 people since 1977, shortly after the death penalty was reinstated in the US.
The California decision stemmed from an interim ruling in February in which Fogel suspended an execution in California because of concerns that the drugs could cause pain.
The two decisions were not related, but both were based on new suggestions that the execution of prisoners by lethal injection - used by a number US states that allow the death penalty - amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Jeb Bush issued an executive order Friday suspending executions and appointed a commission to investigate the use of lethal injections, after the botched execution of 55-year-old Angel Nieves Diaz Wednesday.
'Until the Commission has issued its findings and recommendations and the appropriate revisions to the Department of Corrections' procedures and protocols have been adopted ... no further death warrants shall be signed,' the order said, giving the commission until March to complete its report.
It should have taken only a few minutes for Diaz to fall unconscious after being administered with the lethal injection, but instead he fought off death for a full 34 minutes, The Miami Herald reported.
An autopsy report Friday said the lethal injection needle had missed the main blood vessel in Diaz's arm and was instead injected into arm tissue, causing his death to take about twice as long as usual and forcing doctors to inject a second lethal dose.
Diaz was sentenced to death 27 years ago for the murder of a Miami topless bar manager.
In California, US District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel banned execution by lethal injection saying the method violated the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling effectively halts the administering of capital punishment in the country's most populous state, where lethal injections with a cocktail of three deadly drugs are the only method of execution - as is the case in Florida.
California has over 650 men and women on death row, the largest number in the US, but has executed 12 prisoners since 1977, according the US Department of Justice.
Florida has executed more than 60 people since 1977, shortly after the death penalty was reinstated in the US.
The California decision stemmed from an interim ruling in February in which Fogel suspended an execution in California because of concerns that the drugs could cause pain.
