Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 19, 2006 18:08:46 GMT -5
Human Rights Watch Urges Governor Jeb Bush to Postpone the Execution of
Clarence Hill
Letter to the Governor's Office and the State of Florida:
"Governor Jeb Bush
The Capitol
400 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399
September 18, 2006
Dear Governor Bush:
Clarence Hill is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on
Wednesday. Mr. Hill has repeatedly filed requests seeking details on the
chemicals and procedures that will be used to kill him yet the state has
refused to provide Mr. Hill-or the public-with the information he has
requested. The information is important because it could indicate whether
Mr. Hill will be executed by means that could inflict intense and extended
pain during execution. We urge you to postpone Mr. Hill's execution so
that legitimate and well-founded concerns that Florida's lethal injection
protocol may result in cruel and unusual punishment can be examined. We
also call on you to order public hearings to review Florida's lethal
injection protocol.
Other states have already taken such measures. Recently, South Dakota
Governor Mike Rounds postponed the lethal injection of convicted murderer
Elijah Page just days before his scheduled execution, citing concern about
the state's protocols. In California, a judge recently ordered hearings on
California's lethal injection protocol after logs from six recent
executions revealed that prisoners' chests were still moving regularly up
and down long after the anesthetic component of the lethal injection
should have stopped their breathing. These chest movements suggest the
prisoners may have been awake and suffering.
Human Rights Watch has recently researched and documented why lethal
injection protocols are increasingly viewed as causing unnecessary pain
and suffering. Most people believe lethal injections to be painless. Yet
mounting evidence from states across the country-and from Florida
execution records-suggests that the current method of lethal injection may
in fact be a very painful way to die.
Florida adopted lethal injection executions in 2000-in part because of
pressure to do away with the electric chair after a prisoner's head
erupted in flames during a botched electrocution. Since then, Florida has
executed sixteen prisoners by lethal injection. Most people believe lethal
injections to be painless.
The 3-drug lethal injection protocol used in Florida and every other
lethal injection state works like this: the condemned prisoner is strapped
to a gurney and injected with a massive dose of the anesthetic sodium
pentothal, which should render him unconscious. Next he is injected with
pancuronium bromide, a drug that paralyzes voluntary muscles, including
the lungs and diaphragm. Finally, he is injected with potassium chloride,
which should bring swift cardiac arrest.
The problem, however, is that if the anesthetic does not render the
prisoner unconscious, he will experience tremendous pain-he will feel
himself suffocating from the pancuronium bromide and will feel his veins
burning up as the potassium chloride courses to his heart. Potassium
Chloride is so painful that U.S. veterinarian guidelines prohibit its use
on domestic animals unless a veterinarian first ensures they are deeply
unconscious. No such safeguards are observed for human executions. Indeed
to our knowledge, neither Florida - nor any of the other lethal injection
states - has ever subjected its lethal injection protocol to scrutiny by
independent pharmacologists or the public.
Some information on Florida lethal injections is public, despite the
efforts of the Florida Department of Corrections. During the June 8, 2000
execution of Bennie Demps it took execution technicians 33 minutes to find
suitable veins for the execution. In his final statement, Demps said:
"They butchered me back there, I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the
groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely. This is a
low-tech lynching by poison."
Autopsy reports from the lethal injections of Thomas Provenzano on June
21, 2000 and Robert Glock on January 11, 2001 indicate that executioners
had a hard time finding and maintaining intravenous access to their
veins-raising doubts about whether the condemned inmates received the
lethal injection chemicals in the order and amount necessary to prevent
intense suffering before death. Toxicology reports in Missouri and North
Carolina also suggest some prisoners may have been inadequately
anesthetized before they were killed.
As you know, Florida adopted lethal injection executions in 2000-in part
because of pressure to do away with the electric chair after a prisoner's
head erupted in flames during a botched electrocution. Since then, Florida
has executed 16 prisoners by lethal injection. As governor of Florida, you
have the responsibility and authority to ensure that the method of
execution used does not subject the condemned prisoner to cruel and
unusual punishment, such as through infliction of unnecessary and
avoidable pain.
Available evidence suggests Florida's three drug protocol fails that test.
In resisting court challenges, public information requests, and local and
national media attention, Florida has gone to great lengths to keep its
residents from knowing how it conducts lethal injections and what has
actually happened during recent executions. If Florida believes that its
protocols can withstand scrutiny, why the secrecy?
Human Rights Watch believes that all executions are inherently cruel. But
if a state is going to have the death penalty, it cannot simply adopt an
execution procedure because it looks good. By refusing thus far to subject
their protocols to public scrutiny, Florida has failed its residents who
entrust them with the awesome responsibility of executing prisoners.
We urge you to postpone Clarence Hill's execution, and order public
hearings into Florida's lethal injection protocols and procedures.
Sincerely,
Jamie Fellner
Director, U.S. Program"
(source: Human Rights Watch)
Clarence Hill
Letter to the Governor's Office and the State of Florida:
"Governor Jeb Bush
The Capitol
400 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399
September 18, 2006
Dear Governor Bush:
Clarence Hill is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on
Wednesday. Mr. Hill has repeatedly filed requests seeking details on the
chemicals and procedures that will be used to kill him yet the state has
refused to provide Mr. Hill-or the public-with the information he has
requested. The information is important because it could indicate whether
Mr. Hill will be executed by means that could inflict intense and extended
pain during execution. We urge you to postpone Mr. Hill's execution so
that legitimate and well-founded concerns that Florida's lethal injection
protocol may result in cruel and unusual punishment can be examined. We
also call on you to order public hearings to review Florida's lethal
injection protocol.
Other states have already taken such measures. Recently, South Dakota
Governor Mike Rounds postponed the lethal injection of convicted murderer
Elijah Page just days before his scheduled execution, citing concern about
the state's protocols. In California, a judge recently ordered hearings on
California's lethal injection protocol after logs from six recent
executions revealed that prisoners' chests were still moving regularly up
and down long after the anesthetic component of the lethal injection
should have stopped their breathing. These chest movements suggest the
prisoners may have been awake and suffering.
Human Rights Watch has recently researched and documented why lethal
injection protocols are increasingly viewed as causing unnecessary pain
and suffering. Most people believe lethal injections to be painless. Yet
mounting evidence from states across the country-and from Florida
execution records-suggests that the current method of lethal injection may
in fact be a very painful way to die.
Florida adopted lethal injection executions in 2000-in part because of
pressure to do away with the electric chair after a prisoner's head
erupted in flames during a botched electrocution. Since then, Florida has
executed sixteen prisoners by lethal injection. Most people believe lethal
injections to be painless.
The 3-drug lethal injection protocol used in Florida and every other
lethal injection state works like this: the condemned prisoner is strapped
to a gurney and injected with a massive dose of the anesthetic sodium
pentothal, which should render him unconscious. Next he is injected with
pancuronium bromide, a drug that paralyzes voluntary muscles, including
the lungs and diaphragm. Finally, he is injected with potassium chloride,
which should bring swift cardiac arrest.
The problem, however, is that if the anesthetic does not render the
prisoner unconscious, he will experience tremendous pain-he will feel
himself suffocating from the pancuronium bromide and will feel his veins
burning up as the potassium chloride courses to his heart. Potassium
Chloride is so painful that U.S. veterinarian guidelines prohibit its use
on domestic animals unless a veterinarian first ensures they are deeply
unconscious. No such safeguards are observed for human executions. Indeed
to our knowledge, neither Florida - nor any of the other lethal injection
states - has ever subjected its lethal injection protocol to scrutiny by
independent pharmacologists or the public.
Some information on Florida lethal injections is public, despite the
efforts of the Florida Department of Corrections. During the June 8, 2000
execution of Bennie Demps it took execution technicians 33 minutes to find
suitable veins for the execution. In his final statement, Demps said:
"They butchered me back there, I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the
groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely. This is a
low-tech lynching by poison."
Autopsy reports from the lethal injections of Thomas Provenzano on June
21, 2000 and Robert Glock on January 11, 2001 indicate that executioners
had a hard time finding and maintaining intravenous access to their
veins-raising doubts about whether the condemned inmates received the
lethal injection chemicals in the order and amount necessary to prevent
intense suffering before death. Toxicology reports in Missouri and North
Carolina also suggest some prisoners may have been inadequately
anesthetized before they were killed.
As you know, Florida adopted lethal injection executions in 2000-in part
because of pressure to do away with the electric chair after a prisoner's
head erupted in flames during a botched electrocution. Since then, Florida
has executed 16 prisoners by lethal injection. As governor of Florida, you
have the responsibility and authority to ensure that the method of
execution used does not subject the condemned prisoner to cruel and
unusual punishment, such as through infliction of unnecessary and
avoidable pain.
Available evidence suggests Florida's three drug protocol fails that test.
In resisting court challenges, public information requests, and local and
national media attention, Florida has gone to great lengths to keep its
residents from knowing how it conducts lethal injections and what has
actually happened during recent executions. If Florida believes that its
protocols can withstand scrutiny, why the secrecy?
Human Rights Watch believes that all executions are inherently cruel. But
if a state is going to have the death penalty, it cannot simply adopt an
execution procedure because it looks good. By refusing thus far to subject
their protocols to public scrutiny, Florida has failed its residents who
entrust them with the awesome responsibility of executing prisoners.
We urge you to postpone Clarence Hill's execution, and order public
hearings into Florida's lethal injection protocols and procedures.
Sincerely,
Jamie Fellner
Director, U.S. Program"
(source: Human Rights Watch)