On July 25, the Florida Supreme Court (4 – 3) stayed the August 2 exe­cu­tion of Manuel Valle to allow a low­er court to con­sid­er a chal­lenge to a new lethal injec­tion drug. Last month, Florida sub­sti­tut­ed pen­to­bar­bi­tal for sodi­um thiopen­tal as the first drug in its three-drug pro­to­col for exe­cu­tions. Florida and many oth­er states were forced to seek alter­na­tives to sodi­um thiopen­tal when the drug’s sole U.S. man­u­fac­tur­er decid­ed to stop its pro­duc­tion. Valle’s lawyers con­tend that the use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal would sub­ject him to a sub­stan­tial risk of harm because the drug has nev­er been test­ed on humans for the pur­pose of induc­ing an anes­thet­ic coma. Federal judges in Ohio and Delaware have also recent­ly stayed exe­cu­tions in those states because of lethal injec­tion chal­lenges, although the stay in Delaware was lift­ed pend­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion of the basis for the stay. On sep­a­rate grounds, a fed­er­al judge in Florida found the state’s death penal­ty law uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because jurors are not giv­en deci­sion-mak­ing pow­er to deter­mine whether a defen­dant is eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. That case is still under review.

Valle’s case will return to Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola in Miami, who will hear evi­dence on the new drug and make a rul­ing by August 5.

(B. Kaczor, ​“Florida Supreme Court stays Valle’s exe­cu­tion,” Miami Herald, July 25, 2011). See Lethal Injection.

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