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

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