Opinion ID: 1805723
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Electrocution Violates the Kemmler Standard

Text: Although a total of twenty executions were carried out successfully in the intervening years between the Tafero, Medina, and Davis executions, this statistic is insufficient to save Florida's method of execution from constitutional infirmity. In even the successful executions, the inmate was subjected to violence (i.e., the inmate was administered an electrical force that caused him to convulse violently) and mutilation (i.e., the body of each inmate was burned on the head and leg as a result of the electrocution process). Additionally, in three out of twenty-three executions, i.e., in thirteen percent of executions, the prisoner was subjected to extreme violence and mutilation when the execution was botched. [36] In two of these botched executions (Tafero and Medina), the prisoner was engulfed in smoke and flames when the switch was pulled. The head of one prisoner (Tafero) was burned and charred, his face was licked by flames, and his eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial hair were burned; his head also was gouged and made raw with wounds. The head of another (Medina) was burned and charred and his face was scalded. In the third botched execution (Davis), the prisoner suffered blood flowing from his nose and pooling on his chest; he was likely asphyxiated at least partially prior to electrocution, and he attempted to scream or yell after his airway was occluded; he too was burned on his head, face, and leg. Each of the botched executions was sufficiently egregious to halt further executions and to prompt an extensive official inquiry, complete with an evidentiary hearing and voluminous testimony by eye witnesses and experts. Each botched execution also was transformed by the media into a world-wide spectacle, telecommunicated throughout the world in lurid and inflammatory detail. Following the Tafero execution, the federal district court in Florida addressed the issue of repeated mishaps: If a pattern of malfunctions develops, perhaps even as few as two consecutive or nearly consecutive executions, then it may become appropriate to consider whether the application of electrocution in Florida is infected with an element of cruelty. Hamblen v. Dugger, 748 F.Supp. 1498, 1504 (M.D.Fla.1990). The Tafero, Medina, and Davis executions have now established a pattern of impermissible violence and mutilation. [37] It is clear on the record before this Court that execution by electrocution as carried out in Florida is not limited to the mere extinguishment of life as required under Kemmler, for this method of execution entails undue violence and mutilation. This is particularly clear in light of the continuingand apparently unavoidable mishaps involving Florida's electric chair. The punishment that is actually meted out by DOC officials differs in kind from the simple sentence of death that the constitution permits and that was recommended by the penalty phase juries and ordered by the courts. Execution by electrocution as administered by DOC in Florida violates Kemmler.