Florida, California suspend executions

OCALA, Fla. – Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death this week.

Separately, a federal judge in California extended a moratorium on executions in the nation’s most populous state, declaring that the state’s method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled in San Jose that California’s “implementation of lethal injection is broken, but it can be fixed.”

In Florida, medical examiner Dr. William Hamilton said Wednesday’s execution of Angel Nieves Diaz took 34 minutes – twice as long as usual – and required a rare second dose of lethal chemicals because the needles were inserted through his veins and into the flesh in his arms. The chemicals are supposed to go into veins.

Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, refused to say whether he thought Diaz died a painful death.

“I am going to defer answers about pain and suffering until the autopsy is complete,” he said.

Missing a vein when administering the injections would cause “both psychological and physical discomfort – probably pretty severe,” said Dr. J. Kent Garman, an emeritus professor of anesthesia at the Stanford School of Medicine in California.

“All the drugs would be much slower to affect the body because they’re not going into a blood vessel. They’re going under the skin. They take a long time to be absorbed by the body,” said Garman, who said he was ethically opposed to lethal injection.

An inmate would remain conscious for a longer period of time and would likely be aware of increased difficulty breathing and pain caused by angina, the interruption of blood flow to the heart, he said.

Bush created a commission to examine the state’s lethal injection process in light of Diaz’s case, and he halted the signing of any more death warrants until the panel completes its final report by March 1.

The governor said he wants to ensure the process does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, as some death penalty foes argued bitterly after Diaz’s execution. Florida has 374 people on death row; it has carried out four executions this year.

Gov.-elect Charlie Crist planned to continue the moratorium when he takes office in January, spokeswoman Vivian Myrtetus said.

Lethal injection is the preferred execution method in 37 states. Last month, a federal judge declared Missouri’s injection method, which is similar to California’s, unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld executions – by hanging, firing squad, electric chair and gas chamber – despite the pain they might cause, but has left unsettled the issue of whether the pain is unconstitutionally excessive.

Diaz, 55, was put to death for killing the manager of a topless bar during a holdup in 1979.