Opinion ID: 1805723
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutionality of the Electric Chair

Text: I agree with the majority in upholding the circuit court's findings regarding electrocution as a constitutional method of execution. While I am disturbed by the graphic photographs of Allen Lee Davis' body following his July 8, 1999, execution, I do not find this alone enough to deem electrocution cruel or unusual punishment. Since it is the method of execution that is challenged, it follows that a court must focus on the procedure as a whole and over time, rather than on any one particular execution. Fierro v. Gomez, 865 F.Supp. 1387, 1411 n. 25 (N.D.Cal. 1994) (permanently enjoining California from executing inmates by lethal gas), aff'd, 77 F.3d 301 (9th Cir.) (affirming injunction based on district court's factual findings regarding pain), vacated, 519 U.S. 918, 117 S.Ct. 285, 136 L.Ed.2d 204 (1996) (vacating judgment and remanding for further consideration in light of California's subsequently amended death penalty statute providing that lethal injections should be used to carry out death sentences unless the defendant requests that the State use the gas chamber). As explained by the district court in Fierro, the key question to be answered in a challenge to the method of execution is how much pain the inmate suffers. Id. at 1411. Where unconsciousness is `likely to be immediate or within a matter of seconds' the method is within constitutional limits. Id. (quoting Campbell v. Wood, 18 F.3d 662, 687 (9th Cir.1994) (finding that Washington's execution by judicial hanging did not violate prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment)). The record in the instant case contains competent, substantial evidence to support the conclusion that Davis was rendered unconscious instantaneously when the current was applied. This Court may not arbitrarily overturn the circuit court's finding based upon conflicting evidence in the record. See Shaw v. Shaw, 334 So.2d 13, 16 (Fla.1976) (It is not the function of the appellate court to substitute its judgment for that of the trial court through reevaluation of the testimony and evidence from the record on appeal before it. The test, as pointed out in Westerman [v. Shell's City, Inc., 265 So.2d 43 (Fla.1972),] is whether the judgment of the trial court is supported by competent evidence.).