Opinion ID: 1920803
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Claim I: Lethal Injection

Text: The trial court held that Hill was not entitled to an evidentiary hearing on whether lethal injection, as administered in Florida, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Hill's claim is that a research letter published in April 2005 in The Lancet presents new scientific evidence that Florida's procedure for carrying out lethal injection may subject the inmate to unnecessary pain. See Leonidas G. Koniaris et al., Inadequate Anaesthesia in Lethal Injection for Execution, 365 Lancet 1412 (2005). He supports this claim with an affidavit from one of the study's authors, Dr. David A. Lubarsky, asserting that Florida's procedure is substantially similar to the procedures used in the other states evaluated in the study. Hill ultimately asserts that the information in this study is new information not previously available to this Court when it decided Sims v. State, 754 So.2d 657 (Fla.2000). The trial court denied this claim. We agree. In Sims, we held that the procedures for administering the lethal injection [in Florida] do not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 754 So.2d at 668. This 2005 study, as found by the trial court, does not sufficiently call into question our holding in Sims. This study applies toxicology data in autopsy reports obtained from Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to the protocols used by Texas and Virginia. [2] No toxicology data from Florida was used. Indeed, the study recognizes that the two grams of sodium pentothal administered during lethal injection in Florida is a relatively large quantity [when] compared with the typical clinical induction dose of 3-5 mg/kg. Koniaris et al., supra, at 1412. [3] Nonetheless, from the autopsy data obtained in these other states, the study hypothesizes that this dose may not be administered properly or is possibly being administered in a way that prevents it from having its intended effect. See Koniaris et al., supra, at 1413. The study ultimately concludes that public review of lethal injections is warranted. Id. at 1414. This study does not justify an evidentiary hearing in this case. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.852(i); see also Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.851(f)(5)(A). Under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851(f)(5)(B), a trial court may deny a request for an evidentiary hearing when the motion, files, and records in the case conclusively show that the movant is entitled to no relief. The trial court in this case correctly determined that this study does not entitle Hill to relief. As it clearly admits, the study is inconclusive. It does not assert that providing an inmate with `no less than two' grams of sodium pentothal, as is Florida's procedure, is not sufficient to render the inmate unconscious. Sims, 754 So.2d at 665 n. 17. Nor does it provide evidence that an adequate amount of sodium pentothal is not being administered in Florida, or that the manner in which this drug is administered in Florida prevents it from having its desired effect. [4] And, in Sims, we rejected the claim that the mere possibility of technical difficulties during executions justified a finding that lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. Id. at 668. Therefore, we affirm the trial court's denial of this claim without an evidentiary hearing. [5]