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Supreme Court Orders Review Of Lethal Injection
February 7, 2014
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a review of the new drug used in the state’s lethal injection cocktail in the case of Paul Augustus Howell, a Death Row inmate scheduled for execution Feb. 26.
Justices ordered a circuit court to hold an evidentiary hearing on whether substitution of the drug midazolam violates the constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment by the government.
Howell’s lawyers argued in briefs filed Tuesday that midazolam, the first of the three drug-cocktail that induces unconsciousness, paralysis and cardiac arrest, is problematic because it will not anesthetize him and would leave him “unable to communicate his agony” when the other drugs are administered.
The justices rejected an appeal about the new drug in a previous case, but in a four-page order issued Thursday said that an expert’s report submitted by Howell “has raised a factual dispute, not conclusively refuted, as to whether the use of midazolam, in conjunction with his medical history and mental conditions, will subject him to a ’substantial risk of serious harm.’ ”
The court also ordered the Department of Corrections to produce correspondence and documents from the manufacturer of midazolam concerning the drug’s use in executions, “including those addressing any safety and efficacy issues.”
The high court ordered the 2nd Judicial Circuit in Jefferson County, where Howell was originally tried and convicted of the murder of a highway patrol trooper in 1992, to hold a hearing and enter an order on the issue by 2 p.m. Wednesday.
In September, the Florida Department of Corrections substituted midazolam for the barbiturate pentobarbital as the first of the three-drug lethal injection “protocol.” Florida and other states switched to the new drug because the manufacturer of pentobarbital stopped selling it for use in executions.
The second drug, vecuronium bromide, renders muscle, including the diaphragm, unable to contract, making it impossible to breathe.
If not completely anesthetized when that drug is administered, the condemned would “experience the physical and psychological agony of suffocation,” Howell’s lawyers argued in briefs filed Tuesday.
The new drug protocol has been used four times since its adoption in September, but Howell’s lawyers argued that three of those executed were not fully anesthetized before the other drugs were administered.
The Supreme Court on Thursday also ordered the court to consider testimony from University of Miami anesthesiologist David Lubarsky regarding problems with the state’s protocol for making sure that inmates are unconscious. According to Lubarsky, the state is not waiting long enough between injections for the anesthetic to take effect. Lubarsky also testified the drug poses a significant risk for “paradoxical reactions” for Howell because he has mental health disorders and possible brain injuries.
Howell was scheduled to be executed last year but a federal appeals court issued a stay the day before he was slated to die. The stay was lifted in November, and Gov. Rick Scott rescheduled his execution for Feb. 26.
by Dara Kim, The News Service of Florida
Comments
8 Responses to “Supreme Court Orders Review Of Lethal Injection”
Nitrogen without oxygen does not support life but those breathing it do not realize they are dying, they simply go to sleep.
A condemned prisoner being given the death sentence could simply hae his or her life taken by replacing air with nitrogen or any of several other inert gases. They would die but not suffer. Monitors could verify brain death before giving it another thirty minutes or so to remove the body, unless the state ever decided to use the organs to save the lives of others as partial reparation for the lives they have taken.
I know people want them to suffer but it is that very same desire for them to hurt which is standing in the way of carrying out the sentence.
David for better people
fewer murderers and other evil people
The state supreme court is right on to check on the lethal injections in Florida. Stop using a needle and inject them with a 357 shot to the head right after they are found guilty in the court, not many years later.
I agree with Everett!
I believe the victim’s family and friends DESERVE justice and if our justice system deemed the DEATH PENALTY, than so be it. Not to mention while the inmate sets on death row for MANY, MANY, MANY years with appeals that is when he/she has their chance to prove otherwise in my opinion. Once appeals are exhausted I feel their time has expired. I believe “Lethal Injection” is an easy way out for them compared to how they choose to kill. I say end their life the same exact way they did their victims, period.
Prayers to the victim’s family & friends…may you find some closure in the near future.
Of course his health is at risk. He is about to receive capital punishment. The whole object is put an end to his health.
The article says, ” will subject him to a substantial risk of serious harm.”
he is being put to death and we are worried about harming the guy??? what a country we live in.
The condemned inmate who made the comment that he could “feel his whole body burning” when administered the drug was not feeling a side effect, but the disincorporation of his soul from his body and it’s transition to the dimensional string called hell.
Hell is exothermic and the soul is endothermic and it is just that simple.
Amen Everett!
I’m guessing the victims never suffered or had a choice on how they were murdered.
As Paul Harvey used to say, now for the rest of the story about why Mr. Howell is on death row.
Do a Google search using his name, Paul Augustus Howell
Briefly, he made a bomb to kill a woman in Marianna, FL who was a witness to a drug ring. Howell was transporting the bomb from south Fla and was arrested during a traffic stop for speeding. FHP Trooper Jimmy Fulford was conducting a search of the vehicle when the bomb went off killing him.
FHP and all LEO put their lives and futures on the line every day for our safety.
It is incomprehensible that so much fuss is made over how convicted killers are executed.