A new development at the U.S. Supreme Court may put Mr. Schwab’s execution on hold
September 26, 2007 on 11:37 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments |BREAKING NEWS
The Florida Supreme Court is set to hear the cases of Ian Lightbourne and Mark Schwab on October 11, 2007. Lightbourne is challenging the lethal injection protocol and Mark Schwab is appealing his scheduled execution set for November 15 at 6:00 p.m. However, a new development at the U.S. Supreme Court may put Mr. Schwab’s execution on hold. See the story below from the Death Penalty Information Center: Read More
Disturbing reversal on lethal injections
September 14, 2007 on 5:08 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments |A Times Editorial
Published September 14, 2007
Bizarre may be the best way to describe the 180-degree turn of Marion County Circuit Judge Carven Angel on the state’s lethal injection protocols. In July, the judge had made it clear that he was very uncomfortable with Florida’s updated execution procedures, worrying aloud over whether they comported with “evolving notions of decency.” Read More
Stay on Executions is Lifted, But There is Still Hope
September 14, 2007 on 5:02 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments |In keeping with what is becoming acceptable about torture in the 21st century, Judge Carven Angel has apparently determined that suffering during lethal injection is okay. Fortunately, there are still court cases around the state that may prevent Governor Crist from executing Mark Schwab on November 15th.
Attorneys Terri Backhus, Randy Berg of the Florida Justice Institute, Benjamine Reid and Michael Shafir of the law firm of Carlton Fields, filed a challenge to lethal injection in July in the United States District Court, Middle District (Hardwick v. Bryant). The State, of course, has filed a motion to dismiss, but the case is not over yet.
In addition, as you will see from the St. Petersburg Times editorial and story below, the Florida Supreme Court has scheduled hearings next month on related cases. Check back to this website for updates on hearings and decisions.
TCADP
———————–
Disturbing reversal on lethal injections A Times Editorial
Published September 14, 2007
Bizarre may be the best way to describe the 180-degree turn of Marion County Circuit Judge Carven Angel on the state’s lethal injection protocols. In July, the judge had made it clear that he was very uncomfortable with Florida’s updated execution procedures, worrying aloud over whether they comported with “evolving notions of decency.” But in a ruling on Monday, he put his stamp of approval on those procedures and then went further by proclaiming that the execution of Angel Diaz was not botched.The change of heart is hard to fathom, since to suggest that Diaz’s execution was not botched is an assertion unsupported by the facts.It took Diaz 34 minutes to die, twice the normal time. The execution team had to inject the three-drug lethal chemical cocktail in both arms before Diaz died. Later, an autopsy confirmed that the executioner had torn through Diaz’s veins and delivered the chemicals to his soft tissue instead.Even the state’s own expert said in the hearing before Angel that the people who did the Diaz execution were incompetent, according to Neal Dupree, an attorney for death row inmate Ian Deco Lightbourne, who is challenging the constitutionality of Florida’s lethal injection procedure. But Angel brushed all this aside. He found that Diaz suffered no pain because he didn’t scream or yell during the injections. The judge conveniently ignored the fact that the paralyzing agent could have made any such display impossible. Had the sodium pentothal, the drug that renders the inmate unconscious and pain-free, not been fully effective, Diaz could have been in excruciating pain but would have been paralyzed by the pancuronium bromide and unable to express it.We know this happens because reports have come from surgical patients who regain consciousness but are unable to alert doctors to their agonizing pain due to the paralyzing effects of pancuronium bromide. If Florida is not going to end the death penalty entirely, it should at least eliminate pancuronium bromide from the injection mix. Even veterinarians won’t even use that drug to put down pets, and it is a continuing puzzle why the state insists on using such a controversial and potentially cruel drug. Another confounding part of the judge’s ruling is that the issues he so passionately raised during a July hearing were barely mentioned in his September findings. Angel had expressed concerns that Department of Corrections procedures were not clear enough and that the only qualification listed for the executioner was that he or she be at least 18 years old.In response, DOC made changes to its written protocols to require that the executioner be “sufficiently trained” to administer the flow of chemicals. Yet, this additional statement is little more than pro-forma, since DOC still doesn’t require that a licensed medical professional be enlisted. The judge should have remained skeptical about the medical knowledge and expertise required of the executioner. The issue of whether Florida’s lethal injection protocols are unconstitutional does not end in Angel’s court. The Florida Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments in the case on Oct. 11. But Angel’s flip-flop on the Diaz execution should render his fact-finding suspect and the high court should not rely on it. —————————- —————————- http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/11/State/Stay_on_death_penalty.shtml#—————————- http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/11/State/Stay_on_death_penalty.shtml#
—————————- http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/11/State/Stay_on_death_penalty.shtml#
Stay on death penalty lifted
A judge who held up a case says concerns he had about lethal injection are resolved.
By ALEX LEARY and MEG LAUGHLIN, Times Staff Writers
Published September 11, 2007
Executions in Florida may be clear to resume after an Ocala judge lifted his stay on one lethal injection case Monday, declaring he is satisfied with state procedures he doubted in July.
However, it is unlikely any executions will take place until the state Supreme Court considers the issue.
In his new ruling, Circuit Judge Carven Angel concludes that the execution of a death row inmate that took so long it triggered a review of Department of Corrections procedures was not “botched.”
Angel said the inmate died “within a reasonably short time … in a manner that the court finds was painless and humane.”
“It was never intended that the inmate should wake up and go home,” Angel wrote in a decision that reversed his July critique from the bench on concerns over the execution of Angel Diaz.
In that earlier order, Judge Angel expressed concerns about the way the execution procedure is staffed, from the qualifications of the executioner to the job descriptions for the lethal injection team.
Reached by telephone at his Ocala home Monday night, Angel explained why his opinion had changed: “The Department of Corrections appeared to me to be sensitive to those concerns and addressed them.”
In December, it took 34 minutes for Diaz to die, more than double the average time, because the lethal cocktail went into his soft tissue, not his bloodstream. Witnesses said it appeared Diaz grimaced and clenched in pain.
Shortly after, then-Gov. Jeb Bush suspended executions and asked for a review of lethal injection procedures in Florida. In July, Gov. Charlie Crist lifted the moratorium, but Angel stopped executions again, questioning whether the methods used were “consistent with evolving notions of the decency of man.”
After 13 days of hearings, held between May and September, Angel ruled Monday that because Diaz hadn’t “screamed or yelled after the injection … the inmate did not suffer any pain” and his death did not “result in any abuse, or any cruel or unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.”
Angel’s stay was limited to condemned killer Ian Deco Lightbourne, but Angel was acting as a fact-finder for a larger case before the Florida Supreme Court. The high court chose Lightbourne — the first name on the challenge that was filed by many inmates – to be the case it will use to weigh in on the use of lethal injection.
Lightbourne is now cleared to be executed, but no death warrant has been signed for him. It’s unlikely any other execution will be scheduled before the Lightbourne case is resolved.
Still, the Angel ruling has broader implications for the state’s death penalty, alleviating a stumbling block. Crist purposefully scheduled the execution of Brevard County pedophile and murderer Mark Dean Schwab in November to give the legal issues being tested in the Lightbourne case time to be resolved.
Erin Isaac, a spokeswoman for Crist, said she had not seen the order but said the governor has confidence in the Department of Corrections and is “confident we’ll carry out this process in a humane and dignified way.”
Neal Dupree, Lightbourne’s attorney, said he was surprised that Judge Angel changed his ruling but didn’t offer details on how the state had modified its procedures to satisfy him.
“It’s almost like the judge never had all those concerns in July,” Dupree said. “He seems to have accepted the state’s theory that (Diaz) didn’t leave the chamber alive, so the execution couldn’t be botched.”
Angel said Monday night that it’s worth remembering that the state Supreme Court has yet to consider these issues. Oral arguments in the Lightbourne and Schwab cases are scheduled for Oct. 11.
“The concerns I expressed in the July order are real, legitimate concerns and can’t be ignored,” said Angel, 64. “The state and the department are going to have to be sensitive to them. Maybe the Florida Supreme Court will say something about it but … I obviously don’t feel I have the authority to change things the Florida Supreme Court changes.”
Alex Leary can be reached ataleary@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263. Meg Laughlin can be reached at mlaughlin@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8068.
© Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty 2005
Site Designed by The Artomaton, LLC