A recent retrospective in the Fort Myers Florida Weekly on the state’s death penalty traced some of the problems that have arisen since Florida resumed executions in 1979. During the execution of Jesse Tafero in 1990, six-inch flames shot from the prisoner’s head, and three separate jolts of electricity were required to kill him. Prison officials attributed it to “inadvertent human error.” In the execution of Pedro Medina in 1997, flames and smoke again spewed out from under the head gear. Ron McAndrew, the warden at the time, recently remarked, “For the next 11 minutes, instead of electrocuting this man, we burned him to death. We literally burned him to death.” Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw called such executions “barbaric spectacles” and said they were “acts more befitting a violent murderer than a civilized state.” Florida also has more exonerations (24) from death row than any other state. It is the only state that allows a jury to recommend a death sentence by a simple majority; most states require unanimity. The state’s recent passage of the Timely Justice Act, designed to speed up executions, has raised concerns that it will reduce death row inmates’ opportunities to prove their innocence.

(B. Cornwell, “Florida’s flawed Death System,” Ft. Myers Florida Weekly, October 15, 2014). See Botched Executions, Innocence, and History of the Death Penalty.

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