Opinion ID: 1697471
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Lightbourne Standard

Text: In Lightbourne, the Florida Supreme Court looked at the history of Eighth Amendment standards and found that cruel and unusual punishment is that which involves torture or a lingering death or the infliction of unnecessary and wanton pain. Id. at 341. This would indeed seem to be a different and lesser standard than Baze, lesser in terms of its protection of a defendant. However, the Court also looked at the question of risk and explicitly stated that Lightbourne has not shown a substantial, foreseeable or unnecessary risk of pain in the DOC procedures. It states that even if the Court did review this claim under a `foreseeable risk standard or an `unnecessary risk' we would likewise find that [the petitioner] has failed to carry his burden of showing an Eighth Amendment violation.  Id. at 534-535[1534-1535]. Thus, the Florida Supreme Court did analyze the risk in terms of whether it was substantial, a standard very much in line with Baze. It also analyzed the risk in terms of whether it was foreseeable or unnecessary, both of which provide a higher level of protection to defendants Baze specifically rejected the unnecessary risk standard proposed by petitioners because it found that this standard would improperly involve the courts in determining best practices for execution standards. Id. at 1532. As to what constitutes a substantial risk, the Court notes that the word implies more than speculative or possible risks, but those which might be deemed significantly great, considerable, real, material and of substance. Since the Baze decision of April 2008, the Florida Supreme Court has summarily rejected challenges to the Florida lethal injection protocol three times, citing to Lightbourne Lebron v. State, 982 So.2d 649 (Fla.2008), Woodel v. State, 985 So.2d 524 (Fla.2008), Griffin v. State, 2008 WL 2415856 (Fla. June 2, 2008) Griffin cites to Baze. Although this Court does not know the specifics of the lethal injection claims raised in these three cases, it is clear that the Florida Supreme Court, post-Baze, has considered the constitutionality of the Florida lethal injection protocol and found it constitutional under the Eighth Amendment.