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Justices Halt Florida Execution Amid Questions About Lethal Injection Drug
February 18, 2015
Saying it must “err on the side of extreme caution” or risk threatening the “viability of Florida’s entire death penalty scheme,” the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday halted the Feb. 26 execution of a convicted killer until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a lethal injection drug.
The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily put on hold executions in Oklahoma while it considers whether a relatively new lethal-injection drug violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Because Florida’s lethal injection protocol is virtually identical to Oklahoma’s, the execution next week of Jerry William Correll needs to be delayed until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision, Florida Chief Justice Jorge Labarga wrote for the majority in a 5-2 decision Tuesday.
“Without a stay of execution in this case, Florida risks the unconstitutional execution of Correll, for which there is no remedy. In contrast, a stay pending determination of the issue in the United States Supreme Court will not prejudice the state and, more importantly, will ensure that Florida does not risk an unconstitutional execution, a risk that would threaten the viability of Florida’s entire death penalty scheme,” Labarga wrote. “For all these reasons — the most significant being the pending Supreme Court review of a protocol for which review had been denied in the past — this court must err on the side of extreme caution and grant a stay of execution for Correll.”
The decision overturned a circuit judge’s order last week denying Correll — convicted for the 1985 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, daughter and two others in Orlando — a stay of execution pending the U.S. Supreme Court decision.
In the Oklahoma case, the high court is considering arguments about whether the disputed drug, midazolam hydrochloride, does not effectively sedate inmates during the execution process and subjects them to pain that violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Florida and other states began using the sedative as the first step in a three-drug execution cocktail in 2013, after previously using a drug called pentobarbital sodium. The states switched because Danish-based manufacturer Lundbeck refused to sell pentobarbital sodium directly to corrections agencies for use in executions and ordered its distributors to also stop supplying the drug for lethal-injection purposes.
Correll filed an emergency petition with the Florida Supreme Court on Jan. 30, seeking a stay of his execution while the U.S Supreme Court considers the matter. The Florida court returned the case to Orange County Circuit Judge Jenifer Davis, who last week rejected Correll’s arguments. Gov. Rick Scott signed Correll’s death warrant earlier in January.
In ruling against Correll, Davis pointed to past Florida Supreme Court and federal-court decisions that upheld the use of midazolam hydrochloride.
But on Tuesday, Labarga wrote that, since the U.S. Supreme Court has put on hold executions in Oklahoma while considering the issue, Florida should do the same.
“‘Death is different,’” Labarga wrote, quoting from a previous U.S. Supreme Court decision.”When the execution of a death-sentenced individual is at issue, heightened care must be taken, and none more so than when, as here, the method of execution has a reasonable and realistic chance of being declared to be cruel and unusual punishment by the United States Supreme Court.”
But in a 10-page dissent, Justice Charles Canady argued that the Supreme Court temporarily halted Oklahoma executions because state officials there requested the stays. Canady also objected that, although the drug protocols are similar, a decision about the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s use of midazolam may not have any impact on Florida’s lethal injection process.
The Florida Supreme Court has repeatedly signed off on the use of the drug in previous cases, Canady, joined by Justice Ricky Polston, wrote.
“This court has reviewed an exhaustive amount of litigation in a number of cases regarding the efficacy of midazolam in Florida’s lethal injection protocol, and we have not had concerns about its ability to produce an execution that comports with the Eighth Amendment. Perhaps the Supreme Court is concerned with the ‘botched’ executions of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma; but none of those executions used midazolam in the same manner or dosage as it is used in Florida’s protocol,” he wrote.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Comments
16 Responses to “Justices Halt Florida Execution Amid Questions About Lethal Injection Drug”
Those who oppose killing killers will do anything possible to stop the practice.
That said, a 95% Nitrogen, 5% Carbon Dioxide mixture is painless, cheap and fatal.
Maybe we should all go back to the “death by firing squad”. I believe one state has already passed that.
Doesn’t really matter, the real cruel and unusual punishment will start after death for a murderer.
Drug company’s got their hands in everything.
How about stoping this and changing cocktails when one of these condemned prisoners sit up and tell the execution it hurts and its not working. Smh. What about the victims of these crimes and the last minute of their lives. I guess that’s not cruel or unusual. Better yet just drop these thugs off in a orange jumpsuit in Syria.
Poor baby… I’ll bet the loony lawyers knew this would be a legal quagmire when the idea of lethal injection began. It works for them b/c there have been so many botched ones and ones in which the condemed seemed to endure pain.
Let’s get away from this silly execution style and bring back a real deterant, the gallows.
I am a firm believer in the death penalty and think if it was carried out in a more timely manner and in a public forum that we may just see a little less crime. The way it is now we convict them, sentence them and then take care of them (in better facilities than we place a lot of our elderly and infirm) for 20 years before we even think about carrying out the sentence! By then many of the people involved have died and there are no headlines or interest in the monsters, or their death. They showed no mercy, but we have to……
In my opinion, we (and by this, I mean the courts) have strayed far from the intent of the framers of the Constitution, when they wrote the 8th Amendment protecting against cruel and unusual punishment. Let’s think back to those days, and the punishments they contemplated – flogging, mutilation, removal of hands, eye gouging, etc. We don’t use methods anywhere close to the kinds of punishments they were concerned about. There may be some transient discomfort in lethal injection, but is it cruel? I don’t think we should measure our punishments against the methods of murder employed by the criminals, mainly because we aren’t them. But, to halt the process because the condemned might twitch a little goes too far. We are seeing the height of judicial legislation, where courts set aside the laws and rules of society in favor of the personal sensitivities of the presiding judge.
Firing Squad. Noose. Guillotine. There are so many more efficient and “less painful” ways to carry out the sentence. Heck, why not let the criminals choose which one of the aforementioned methods they would prefer? At least then they would have some say in the matter . . . unlike their victims.
Who cares if it hurts. They did the murders, now pay the price. Let the relatives decide how the cowards die.
How about using “street drugs”? I see where people OD all of the time and they seem to enjoy the trip. Oh I forgot—- the judges and the “don’t let them die” groups are smarter. Look at the crimes these people have done and ask– why do we feel sorry for them.
WHAT?Its not cruel to stab 4 people to death but its cruel to not properly sedate the killer before giving them a quick easy death.I agree with old days and 429scj.Hang them high.And not wait years before doing it.
If there’s NO doubt they did the crime I don’t care if they lets ants eat them alive…
I really don’t like how politicians, judges, police and perverts are protected when they’re caught doing crimes and put in prison.. General population for all with NO weight room, TV or basketball court..
One question and one question only!
Did Jerry William Correll or any other murder stop and ask their victims how they would like to loss their lives?
I don’t think so! What is inhuman is letting these “people” (I hate to call them that), breathe any more air.
Strap them down and smother them with a pillow.
Tomorrow it will make no difference, one way or the other.
I saw on TV where Alabama also put an execution on hold this week. Hmmm, why don’t we go back to the way it was done for years, hang um at the court house? They want have to buy those expensive drugs and would save tons of money! Heck I’d buy and donate the first dozen ropes!