Opinion ID: 1597640
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Lancet Article and Diaz Execution

Text: Next, Walton challenges the constitutionality of Florida's lethal injection protocol under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The issue presented to the trial court in Walton's postconviction motion was whether the study published in The Lancet, Inadequate Anaesthesia in Lethal Injection for Execution, constituted newly discovered evidence. See Leonidas G. Koniaris et al., Inadequate Anesthesia in Lethal Injection for Execution, 365 Lancet 1412 (2005). In summarily denying this claim, the circuit court ruled that it was bound by our decisions in Diaz v. State, 945 So.2d 1136 (Fla.2006), Rolling v. State, 944 So.2d 176, 179 (Fla.2006), Rutherford v. State, 926 So.2d 1100, 1113 (Fla.2006), and Hill v. State, 921 So.2d 579, 583 (Fla.2006), which held that (1) the Lancet study does not constitute newly discovered evidence; and (2) execution by lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. On appeal, Walton appears to withdraw from any reliance upon The Lancet study. Instead, Walton now asserts that the circuit court erred in prematurely denying his successive motion before he had the opportunity to file a motion to amend his claim, which he did not intend to file until after the issues surrounding the Diaz execution were resolved. Reviewing the timeline of events, the Diaz execution occurred in early December 2006. In response, Walton moved to continue the case management conference scheduled for late December 2006. The circuit court granted this motion and rescheduled the conference for mid-January 2007. In February 2007, this Court dismissed without prejudice Walton's petition in Lightbourne v. McCollum, 969 So.2d 326 (Fla.2007), which would not have prevented him from filing a postconviction motion in the appropriate circuit court. [6] The Governor's Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection in Florida issued its report regarding the Diaz execution in March 2007. Thus, from December 2006, at the earliest, and by March 2007, at the latest, Walton was on notice to amend his motion to include any claims regarding the Diaz execution. Walton did not, however, attempt to supplement his motion based on the Diaz execution and the subsequent remedial measures. In his motion for rehearing, filed in late-March 2007, Walton's counsel sought for the first time leave to amend his lethal injection claim based on newly discovered evidence premised upon the events surrounding the Diaz execution. In essence, Walton now contends that the trial court erred by not holding the disposition of his successive postconviction motion in abeyance until some unknown time when he was ready to file an amendment to his lethal injection claim. We review the denial of a motion to amend a postconviction motion for abuse of discretion. See Huff v. State, 762 So.2d 476, 481 (Fla.2000). A review of the rules of procedure does not support Walton's contention that a circuit court should perpetually hold resolution of a motion in abeyance pending an unfiled amendment to the motion. Moreover, Walton had several months between the Diaz execution and the circuit court's order denying his motion to submit any amendments. Despite this window of opportunity, Walton did not timely file an amended motion, nor did he request leave to supplement the motion. Cf. Gaskin v. State, 737 So.2d 509, 518 (Fla.1999) (holding that the circuit court erred in failing to consider the merits of new allegations in a timely filed amended postconviction motion), receded from on other grounds by Nelson v. State, 875 So.2d 579, 583 (Fla.2004). Thus, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by failing to consider amendments and allegations that were never filed or raised until the motion for rehearing. Furthermore, even if we considered the merits, this Court has continually upheld the constitutionality of Florida's lethal injection protocol since the issuance of Lightbourne. See Tompkins v. State, 994 So.2d 1072, 1082-83 (Fla.2008) (citing Power v. State, 992 So.2d 218, 220-21 (Fla. 2008); Sexton v. State, 997 So.2d 1073, 1089 (Fla.2008); Henyard v. State, 992 So.2d 120, 129 (Fla.2008), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 28, 171 L.Ed.2d 930 (2008); Schwab v. State, 995 So.2d 922, 925-33 (Fla.2008), petition for cert. filed, No. 08-5020 (U.S. June 30, 2008); Woodel v. State, 985 So.2d 524, 533-34 (Fla.2008), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 607, 172 L.Ed.2d 465 (2008); Lebron v. State, 982 So.2d 649, 666 (Fla.2008); Schwab v. State, 982 So.2d 1158, 1159-60 (Fla.2008); Lightbourne v. McCollum, 969 So.2d 326, 350-53 (Fla.2007), cert. denied ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 2485, 171 L.Ed.2d 777 (2008); Schwab v. State, 969 So.2d 318, 321-25 (Fla.2007), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 2486, 171 L.Ed.2d 777 (2008)). The research study in The Lancet does not constitute newly discovered scientific evidence that Florida's lethal injection protocol creates a substantial, foreseeable, or unnecessary risk of pain for the condemned. See Rutherford, 926 So.2d at 1113-14; see also Sims v. State, 754 So.2d 657, 668 (Fla.2000). Walton fails to present any additional testimony or evidence regarding Florida's current lethal injection protocol other than those already rejected by this Court. Since the issuance of our decision in Lightbourne, further developments support our conclusion that Florida's lethal injection protocol does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. As to the first development, Walton does not present any new evidence with regard to the chemicals employed since the United States Supreme Court's decision in Baze v. Rees, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 128 S.Ct. 1520, 1534, 170 L.Ed.2d 420 (2008), which upheld the constitutionality of the same method of execution used in Florida, consisting of lethal injection through the same three-drug combination under similar protocols. Moreover, we have rejected contentions that Baze set a different or higher standard for lethal injection claims than Lightbourne. See, e.g., Henyard, [992 So.2d at 129] (rejecting Henyard's argument that Baze sheds new light on this Court's decisions because the standard for reviewing Eighth Amendment challenges was changed and noting that [w]e have previously concluded in Lightbourne and Schwab that the Florida protocols do not violate any of the possible standards, and that holding cannot conflict with the narrow holding in Baze ). The second development was the performance of two executions in Florida, those of Mark Dean Schwab and Richard Henyard, with no subsequent allegations of any newly discovered problems with Florida's lethal injection process, such as the problems giving rise to the investigations following the Diaz execution. Tompkins, 994 So.2d at 1081-82. Thus, the circuit court did not err in summarily denying relief on this claim.