Opinion ID: 1705602
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Present Circumstances

Text: Presently, the defendant is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection through the administration of what has been referred to as a three-drug cocktail. With the majority's denial of a stay, this execution will be the first in Florida since the execution of Angel Diaz in December 2006. That execution has been widely viewed as botched because of the difficulty and the extraordinary amount of time it took to administer the lethal three-drug cocktail, and the perception that Diaz was subjected to extensive and unnecessary pain before finally dying. The Diaz execution resulted in the Governor ordering an immediate halt to any further executions in Florida, and the appointment of a commission to investigate the Diaz execution and the protocols utilized by the Department of Corrections for administering the three-drug cocktail, with a view towards ensuring that any problems, constitutional or otherwise, be identified and remedied. In turn, the findings and recommendations of the special commission and the heightened scrutiny on this method of execution has resulted in modifications to the protocol used by the Department of Corrections to administer lethal injection. It is the resulting modifications in the Department of Corrections' protocols that were ultimately approved by the trial court in rejecting the constitutional claims in Lightbourne v. McCollum, 969 So.2d 326 (Fla.2007), and that this Court has in turn approved on appeal in both Lightbourne and this case.