Lethal Injection Is On Hold in 2 States
Florida Governor Suspends Executions; Judge Orders California to Alter Methods

By Peter Whoriskey and Sonya Geis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 16, 2006

MIAMI, Dec. 15 -- Executions by lethal injection were suspended in Florida and ordered revamped in California on Friday, as the chemical method once billed as a more humane way of killing the condemned came under mounting scrutiny over the pain it may cause.

Gov. Jeb Bush (R) ordered the suspension in Florida after a botched execution in which it took 34 minutes and a second injection to kill convicted murderer Angel Nieves Diaz. A state medical examiner said that needles used to carry the poison had passed through the prisoner's veins and delivered the three-chemical mix into the tissues of his arm.

In California, a federal judge ruled that the state must overhaul its lethal-injection procedures, calling its current protocol unconstitutional because it may inflict unacceptable levels of pain.

Judge Jeremy D. Fogel of the U.S. District Court for Northern California ordered the state to revise its procedures and consider eliminating the use of two drugs: pancuronium bromide, which causes paralysis, and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest.

The judge did not order executions halted, though they have been effectively on hold since February while he conducted a review.

The "pervasive lack of professionalism" in the executions, Fogel wrote, "at the least is very disturbing."

More than 30 states, including Virginia and Maryland, use the same three-drug sequence for lethal injections. Groups opposed to the death penalty have had increasing success arguing that the pain the cocktail inflicts is unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment."

"This demonstrates that there is no happy and kind and nice way to execute someone," said David Elliot, a spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "Execution is a messy business."

But in Florida and California, advocates for the death penalty were quick to argue that only the technical specifics of the method are in dispute and that when the procedures are changed, the injections can begin again.

"Essentially what Judge Fogel's order today does is lay out a map for the Department of Corrections to follow in order to have a constitutionally sound lethal-injection protocol," said Nathan Barankin of the California attorney general's office.

Bush appointed a commission to review lethal-injection procedures in Florida "to ensure the method is consistent with the Eighth Amendment and its prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment," the governor said in a statement Friday.

But Bush said he saw no reason to stop using lethal injection. "All the people that are against the death penalty whenever there's a chance will call for suspending the death penalty," he said. "Each and every time that another appeal takes place, a family member of the person who was brutally murdered suffers again. So I think there needs to be sympathy for them as well."

The decisions in California and Florida on Friday come amid rising debate in other states.

In Maryland, a federal judge is considering the constitutionality of lethal injection. A ruling is expected next year. Officials in Missouri and South Dakota have delayed executions while lethal injection is reviewed. Oklahoma altered its procedure so that the prisoner receives more anesthesia before being executed. And in North Carolina, a federal judge ordered that a brain monitor be used to make sure an inmate is unconscious before the final drug is administered.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed another Florida death-row inmate to challenge that state's lethal-injection procedures through a federal civil rights lawsuit, a ruling considered a procedural victory for opponents of the death penalty.

Richard C. Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group critical of capital punishment, pointed out that although the California ruling does not end the death penalty there, it "may be influential."

"What it may mean is the Supreme Court will have to step in and decide," Dieter said.

Diaz's death took more than twice as long as most executions in Florida, where death generally occurs within 15 minutes. More than 20 minutes after the first injection, Diaz appeared to be mouthing words, clenching his jaw and grimacing. A second dose was administered.

Diaz was executed for murdering the manager of a Miami topless bar in 1979.

The halt to executions in Florida could end as soon as March 1, when the commission assigned to study lethal-injection procedures is expected to file a final report.

In the California case, attorneys for condemned murderer Michael A. Morales had argued that because inmates are paralyzed by the drugs, witnesses cannot be sure the convicts are unconscious when they are executed -- meaning they may be in terrible pain. The court agreed in February and ordered corrections officials to either stop using the two drugs or provide doctors to ensure Morales was unconscious.

Two anesthesiologists agreed to observe, and Morales's execution was underway when, in a last-minute decision, the doctors backed out after an appeals court ruled they would have to step in if anything went wrong.

Since then, Fogel has held extensive hearings on how executions are conducted.

He ultimately found that executioners were not properly trained and made mistakes in administering the drugs and that California's execution chamber is poorly suited to its purpose.

The state's "implementation of lethal injection is broken, but it can be fixed," Fogel wrote.

Geis reported from Los Angeles.