States changed from hanging to electric chair because it was a modern, supposedly painless method of execution. Botched executions have rendered that assumption problematic.
Eighth Amendment
Inmate Asks Florida Justices to Block Execution Pending Supremes’ Ruling on Lethal Injection
Attorneys for condemned killer Jerry William Correll filed an emergency petition as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a sedative that is the first drug administered during a three-step process in executions.
Scott Signs 21st Death Warrant 3 Days After UN Vote Calling for Capital Punishment Moratorium
The warrant is for the execution of Johnny Shane Kormondy, 42, accused of murdering Gary McAdams and participating in the gang rape of his wife Cecilia during a robbery in Pensacola in 1991, when Kormondy was 21.
Said to Have Been Framed For Tampa Murder, Deaf Convict Felix Garcia Is Denied Release
Felix Garcia’s supporters had hoped he would be released with time served, arguing that he’d been unable to understand the evidence against him during the murder trial and wasn’t given an interpreter.
Cruel and Unusual: 2 Inmates Who Murdered as Juveniles Challenge Their Life Sentences
Two inmates serving life in prison for murders committed as juveniles are challenging their sentences based on a 2012 US Supreme Court ruling that bans mandatory life sentences for juveniles.
Gov. Rick Scott Signs 20th Death Warrant for Execution of Chadwick Banks on Nov. 13
Chadwick Banks murdered his wife, Cassandra Banks, then raped and murdered his 10-year-old stepdaughter, Melody Cooper, on Set. 24, 1992 in Gadsden County. Banks shot both victims in the head.
Department of Corrections Fires 32 More, Including 3 Guards Involved In Gassing Death of Inmate
All of the workers fired were on administrative leave pending a review launched earlier this summer. The housecleaning is part of the secretary’s attempt to salvage the reputation of the beleaguered agency in the wake of reports of widespread abuse and corruption, whistleblower complaints and federal investigations surrounding prisoner deaths.
Gruesome Buddies: ISIS Beheadings
And the American Death Penalty
ISIS beheadings have provoked instinctive revulsion, justly so. Too bad the same reaction doesn’t follow Florida’s and other American state’s equally barbaric continuation of the death penalty, a habit other civilized nations have abandoned.
In Florida, Police Can Use Deadly Force Without Fearing Prosecution
“In the past 20 years, not a single officer in Florida has been charged with using deadly force,” The New York Times reported last week, a startling prevalence of de-facto immunity in a state where police violence is not rare.
John Ruthell Henry Is Executed, 18th Inmate Put to Death on Rick Scott’s Watch
No other first-term governor has signed the execution warrants of so many inmates since Florida re-instituted the death penalty in 1976. Since then, the state has executed 87 inmates. One in five of those has been executed on Scott’s watch, in less than four years.