Florida​’s gov­er­nor halt­ed all exe­cu­tions in the state until a com­mis­sion can inves­ti­gate and report what went wrong with the lethal injec­tion of Angel Nieves Diaz on December 13. Gov. Jeb Bush issued an exec­u­tive order announc­ing a pan­el of experts to make rec­om­men­da­tions for changes to the process and said that no death war­rants will be signed until mod­i­fi­ca­tions are adopt­ed. Diaz’s exe­cu­tion took more than twice as long as nor­mal and required two rounds of the lethal chem­i­cals. Witnesses stat­ed that Diaz appeared to be mov­ing, gri­mac­ing, and try­ing to mouth words after the first injection.

Hours lat­er on Friday, U.S. District Judge Jeremey Fogel ruled that California’s process of lethal injec­tion was ​“bro­ken” and vio­lat­ed the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments. He not­ed a ​“per­va­sive lack of pro­fes­sion­al­ism” in the super­vis­ing of exe­cu­tions. His rul­ing fol­lowed exten­sive hear­ings over many months to try to find a solu­tion to the lethal injec­tion con­tro­ver­sy. The exe­cu­tion of Michael Morales in California was halt­ed at the 11th hour ear­ly in the year after doc­tors, who were called in to super­vise the lethal injec­tion, decid­ed that they could not do so for eth­i­cal rea­sons. Both Gov. Bush and Judge Fogel indi­cat­ed that mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the lethal injec­tion process may still allow the method to be used in the future.

Officials in Florida had ear­li­er indi­cat­ed that Diaz’s lengthy exe­cu­tion may have been due to a pre-exist­ing med­ical con­di­tion. But doc­tors inter­viewed indi­cat­ed that there were like­ly prob­lems with the exe­cu­tion process. ​“I’m at a loss to explain all those occur­rences,” said Dr. Rafael Miguel, a University of South Florida pro­fes­sor who is pres­i­dent of the Florida Society of Anesthesiologists. ​“It just makes it hard to make any con­clu­sion about what hap­pened.”

​“If he real­ly moved for that amount of time, there was some huge prob­lem,” said Dr. Jonathan Groner, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor for surgery at Ohio State University who has tes­ti­fied in death penal­ty cas­es. ​“One can only sur­mise that he did not become uncon­scious and he felt pain.”
(See St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 15, 2006, N.Y. Times, Dec. 15 & 16, 2006; Washington Post, Dec. 16, 2006).

Diaz’s exe­cu­tion was the last one sched­uled in the coun­try this year. He was the 53rd per­son exe­cut­ed this year, and the fourth in Florida. On the whole, exe­cu­tions are down 12% from last year and down over 45% since 1999. See DPIC’s 2006 Year End Report and Lethal Injection. Read Gov. Bush’s Executive Order. Read Judge Fogel’s Decision in the Morales case.

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