Florida Supreme Court Approves Lethal Injection

On November 1st, in a very discouraging, but not surprising move, the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that lethal injection, as outlined by the Florida Department of Corrections, is not cruel and unusual. On November 7th the FSC rejected the requests for rehearings in both the Schwab and the Lightbourne cases. Most legal observers believe that the FSC is simply “passing the buck” to the U.S. Supreme Court which is expected to halt the execution of Mark Schwab scheduled for November 15th at 6:00 p.m.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on lethal injection (Baze) and will likely stop executions around the country until they have had the opportunity to hear the case and make a decision some time in 2008. We will continue to monitor this and post information as it comes out.

If you would like to read the opinions from the Florida Supreme Court, they can be accessed at the link below. Look for Lightbourne v. McCollum and Schwab v. State of Florida: http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/opinions.shtml#2007

Sheila Meehan - Chair TCADP