Two others haven't used their chairs since 1976, when the Supreme Court lifted the ban on capital punishment. AS LONG AS Florida continues capital punishment, it should follow the recent recommendation of the state Corrections Commission and replace electrocution with lethal injections. The state must not be in the business of frying brains. The next step should be outlawing capital punishment altogether. A judge says electrocution doesn't hurt.
Lawmakers ponder lethal injection.
Yet defenses of the chair, like the inmates who die in it, are tortured. Twice in 18 executions, inmates have died with fire shooting from their heads. After the most recent fiery execution in March, the Florida Supreme Court ordered Duval Circuit Judge A.C. Soud Jr. to determine whether Florida's method of execution is constitutional. The judge found no problem with Old Sparky. This can be said for all inmates who will be executed in Florida's electric chair hereafter.