Secrecy another reason that executions should end in Florida

If the state of Florida is unable to execute prisoners without shrouding the process in secrecy, it’s another reason that capital punishment should be ended entirely.

State prison officials are asking the Legislature to make confidential any records that “could reasonably lead to the identification of any person or entity participating in an execution,” the Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau recently reported.

The legislation is aimed at hiding the supply chain behind the mix of drugs used in lethal injections, according to the report. Death penalty opponents would then be prevented from pressuring drug makers into blacklisting the state from buying their products.

Secrecy is nothing new for the state of Florida when it comes to capital punishment. State officials have long shielded the death penalty from scrutiny.

During my first four years as a reporter for The Sun, I witnessed and wrote about seven executions at Florida State Prison near Starke. The barbarity of the death penalty was easy to overlook due to the way lethal injections were administered. It usually looked like a medical procedure in which a patient was sedated, only in this case the patient doesn’t wake up.

'Some medical experts say the sedative is inadequate for rendering someone truly unconscious during an execution, with reports of inmates showing signs of pain during recent executions backing up their claims. The state’s response has been covering inmates with sheets and making other changes that block witnesses from seeing whether inmates are suffering during executions, while working to exempt execution information from public records law.'

At a 2006 execution, however, the façade was lifted. The execution of Ángel Díaz was botched so badly that he writhed in pain and took 30 minutes to die, 20 minutes longer than the typical execution. The Alachua County Medical Examiner later reported that a misplaced IV line caused Díaz to suffer nearly foot-long chemical burns on his arms.

Then-Gov. Jeb Bush temporarily halted all executions while a state commission investigated. Florida's primary executioner used voice-disguising equipment while testifying by phone, admitting to the commission that he lacked medical qualifications and was last trained in the lethal injection process seven years before Díaz was executed.

During some executions that I witnessed, a doctor who declared the inmate dead wore a blue hood and goggles to hide the person's identity. The American Medical Association's ethical guidelines ban physicians from taking part in executions, so those involved have a vested interest in maintaining such secrecy. But I was still able to uncover the names of at least three physicians involved in Florida executions through autopsy records.

State prison officials no longer want to take such chances in keeping execution details secret, particularly since problems with the lethal injection process are again in the spotlight. The process was modified after Díaz was executed and has again been changed in recent years, with Florida now administering a sedative to condemned inmates that other states don't use.

Some medical experts say the drug is inadequate for rendering someone truly unconscious during an execution, with reports of inmates showing signs of pain during recent executions backing up their claims. The state’s response has been covering inmates with sheets and making other changes that block witnesses from seeing whether inmates are suffering during executions, while working to exempt execution information from public records law.

There is a strong case to be made that capital punishment is unconstitutional if inmates are essentially being tortured before they die, even if that doesn't sway the opinion of some death-penalty supporters. But there are plenty of other reasons for Floridians to oppose the death penalty.

Florida leads the country in Death Row exonerations and racial disparities have long been documented in death sentences. The state spends tens of millions of dollars more on defending death sentences than it would cost to imprison inmates for life.

With so many obvious problems and more that the state is trying to hide, Florida needs to finally end capital punishment.

Source: gainesville.com, Nathan Crabbe, January 28, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Israel’s Ben-Gvir posts video of gallows site for hanging Palestinian terrorists

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offenses will be hanged. Ben-Givr said the new execution site would be equipped with viewing booths for families of victims to watch the hangings. He posted the video on social media of a visit he had made to the unidentified location, where he can be seen pointing at foundations being laid and saying it was where “terrorists will be executed." Photographs in the Israeli media showed a bulldozer and heavy construction work in a cordoned-off area, reportedly close to a prison.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog