Death row inmates in Florida have a choice for method of execution. Here’s how it works:

Florida administers executions by lethal injection or electric chair. In 2000, then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation making lethal injection the state’s default method of execution amid controversy over the electric chair.

The last inmate Florida executed by electrocution was Allen Davis in July 1999. Witnesses described blood streaming from Davis’ nose and onto his shirt, which drew widespread attention two years after an inmate’s mask burst into flames during a different Florida electrocution.

Since then, 57 people have been executed by lethal injection and none by electric chair. Prior to 2000, there were 44 electrocution executions.

How do inmates choose their method of execution in Florida?

According to state law, a person convicted and sentenced to death for a capital crime has one opportunity to elect execution by electrocution. The election for death by electrocution is waived unless it is personally made by the person in writing and delivered to the warden of the correctional facility.

Florida is one of eight states that still have the electric chair on the books and one of a handful of states that allow inmates to select how they will be executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Have any death row inmates in Florida selected the electric chair as their method of execution?

In 2015, Florida death-row inmate Wayne Doty asked the state to execute him by electrocution rather than lethal injection. It’s believed to be the first such request since inmates were given a choice. Doty, who was sentenced to death for killing another inmate, submitted his hand-written request to the warden. His execution date has not been set, but if he is ultimately executed by electrocution, he would become the first Florida inmate executed by that method since the 2000 law giving inmates a choice was enacted.

How is the executioner in Florida selected?

The execution team warden selects two executioners who are fully capable of performing the designated functions to carry out the execution. One is designated as the primary executioner. The other is secondary and will be present and available during the execution to assume responsibilities if the primary executioner becomes unavailable for any reason.

The Florida Department of Corrections website says the executioner is an adult who has undergone a criminal background check and is sufficiently trained, competent, and “of sufficient character” to administer the flow of lethal chemicals.

Who monitors an execution in Florida?

The only staff authorized to be in the execution chamber are members of the execution team and others approved by the team warden, including two members from Florida Department of Law Enforcement. In the presence of one or more team members and an independent observer from FDLE, a designated execution team member prepares the lethal chemicals, ensuring each syringe is appropriately labeled.

Throughout the execution process one or more designated execution team members will observe the heart monitors. If the heart monitors reflect a flat line reading during or following the complete administration of the lethal chemicals, a doctor will examine the inmate to determine if the inmate’s heart has stopped beathing and the person is no longer breathing.

Who administers the lethal injection in Florida executions?

Since lethal injections are the default method of execution in Florida, all death row inmates executed since 2000 have undergone this process. The executioner is a private citizen who is paid $150 per execution, according to Florida Department of Corrections. State law allows for his or her identity to remain anonymous. The executioner’s sole function is to inject the chemicals into the IV access port by physically pushing the chemicals from the syringe.

What drugs does Florida use in lethal injection?

Florida’s lethal injection cocktail consists of three chemicals. The first is an injection of etomidate, an anesthetic. The second injection is rocuronium bromide, a paralytic muscle relaxer, and the third is potassium acetate, which causes the heart to stop, followed by an injection of a saline solution. The executioner also injects a saline solution to ensure the drugs enter the inmate’s veins.

The lethal chemicals are prepared by an execution team member who then transports them personally to the executioner’s room. The drugs are administered intravenously. The inmate is also offered intramuscular injections of hydroxyzine to ease anxiety, if he or she chooses.

What happens if there is a problem administering the lethal chemicals?

If at any time during the administration of the lethal chemicals the primary venous access becomes compromised, the team warden shall order the execution process stopped and assess the primary access site, as well as determine if a secondary access site is necessary.

Once the team warden is assured that the execution team has secured a viable access site, the execution process will resume.

Source: pnj.com, M. Barrows, April 26, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW US ON:

TELEGRAM

TWITTER

CONTACT: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

"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 to execute William Thompson after nearly 48 years on death row

On Sept. 11, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant for William Thompson, convicted of the 1976 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. Thompson, now 74, and another man were staying in a Miami Beach hotel room with Ivester and another woman, according to court records. After Ivester was unable to get money from her mother, the men beat and tortured her, prosecutors said. She died from internal bleeding and multiple injuries. Thompson was convicted in 1978 of kidnapping, rape, and first-degree murder.

Singapore | Ministry of Home Affairs refutes claims that death penalty was discussed during visit by Israel's security ministry

The Ministry of Home Affairs says discussions with the Israeli government involved the sharing of best practices in emergency response, crime prevention, and forensics. Issues relating to the death penalty “were never part of the meeting and were not discussed." SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Sep 11) refuted claims by an Israeli media outlet that the death penalty was discussed during a visit by an Israeli delegation in May. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Sep 7 that a delegation comprising representatives from the Israel Prison Service and National Security Ministry made a “secret visit” to Singapore that month.

Afghanistan | Signs that horrific brutality is set to return

Kneeling next to a ditch, deep in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, a 22-year-old woman draws her last breath in a 'desert court' before she is shot in the back with an AK-47. Her executioner? Likely her hardline militant husband, in what the Taliban consider an 'honour killing'. It took less than an hour to decide Najiba had been adulterous – although it has been suggested this accusation was fabricated to protect her husband's reputation. Adultery is a crime that deserves capital punishment under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Sharia law. Fourteen years on from her death, little is known about her story, like many women slowly being erased from the fabric of Afghan society.

Alabama | Lethal injection for double murderer set for Thursday after court blocked nitrogen hypoxia execution in June

Alabama plans to execute Jeffery Lee on Thursday via lethal injection after a down-to-the-wire decision by the federal courts halted his death by nitrogen hypoxia in June. In response, Gov. Kay Ivey set the 30-hour window for the execution to be carried out by lethal injection beginning at 12 a.m. on Thursday, September 17, and expiring at 6 a.m. on Friday, September 18. Barring any further court action, the execution will take place at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Florida executes Daniel Owen Conahan Jr.

In Florida’s 15th execution this year, man put to death for killing linked to ‘Hog Trail Murders’ A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a 3-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least 6 people over a 3-year span.

California | He spent 19 years on death row. His conversion to Judaism helped him endure

Johnny Morales struggled to find sleep. He dozed off for a few moments, but officers came to his death row cell and woke him a little after midnight. They needed to inventory and box up his belongings. He was leaving San Quentin. Hands cuffed behind his back, he walked across the empty upper yard in the dim gray hours before daylight. An officer walked alongside him step for step, black latex-gloved fingers holding onto Morales’s arm. For almost 20 years, Morales could only experience the world outside his 4-by-11 foot cell in the condemned housing unit like this—chained and escorted by officers. Security protocols required all death row residents be handcuffed or shackled any time they were out in open space with staff.

Iran | Afghan Citizen Executed in Wheelchair Due to Severe Mobility Disability

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed an Afghan citizen, identified as Valijan Nourzay, at the central prison in Rafsanjan, according to the human rights organization Hengaw. Hengaw said in a statement on Sunday, September 6, that Nourzay was executed early Wednesday last week at Rafsanjan Central Prison. According to the organization, Nourzay had a severe mobility disability and was executed while in a wheelchair. Hengaw, citing informed sources, reported that Nourzay had been pursued by Iranian authorities three years ago over an alleged murder. He was reportedly seriously wounded after Iranian security forces opened fire on him in Rafsanjan before being arrested and later sentenced to death.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

Egypt TV presenter and 11 others sentenced to death in major drugs case

Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 others have been sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of drug trafficking and rape, while nine defendants received life sentences and seven were acquitted. Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa, 39, has been sentenced to death by hanging along with 11 other defendants after being found guilty in a drugs case involving a criminal gang accused of importing ingredients used to manufacture narcotics for sale.

California | Becerra vows to extend moratorium despite past support for capital punishment

SACRAMENTO—Democrat Xavier Becerra defended the death penalty while serving as California’s attorney general, a punishment his office actively sought in the case of a gunman convicted of an Orange County mass shooting, but as the front-running candidate for governor, he has vowed to block executions if elected in November. Becerra said he will extend the blanket reprieve for all death row inmates that Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted by executive order in 2019, saying he supported “moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog