Opinion ID: 1856196
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: florida's electric chair

Text: While the people of Florida have designated capital punishment as an appropriate sanction for certain crimes, the legislature has implemented electrocution as the sole method of execution in this State. See § 922.10, Fla. Stat. (Supp.1996). In light of recent malfunctions in Florida's electric chair, this method of execution, in my opinion, entails unnecessary violence and mutilation and thus is unconstitutionally cruel on its facenot unlike the guillotine which was abandoned years ago in its country of origin, France, notwithstanding its efficiency in getting the grisly job done with dispatch and minimal pain. [24] This Court described the circumstances surrounding the execution of Jesse Tafero, which took place May 4, 1990: When Tafero's execution began, smoke and flames instantaneously spurted from his head for a distance of as much as twelve inches. The flames and smoke emanated from the area around a metallic skull cap, inside of which was a saline-soaked synthetic sponge meant to increase the flow of electricity to the head. The cap is the source of electricity administered to condemned prisoners by the electric chair. Because of the smoke and flames, officials of the Department of Corrections stopped the first surge of electricity. A second jolt again resulted in smoke and flames spurting from Tafero's head. Finally, a third jolt of electricity was administered. A medical examiner found that Tafero was dead some six or seven minutes after the execution commenced. Thereafter, the Governor ordered the Department of Corrections to conduct an investigation into the circumstances of Tafero's execution. The Department reported that the equipment was in proper working order. However, it was determined that for the first time a synthetic, rather than a natural, sponge had been used in the headpiece. The Department concluded that the burning of the sponge caused the flames and smoke which were seen during Tafero's execution.... The Department ... noted that most executions last longer than seven minutes. Buenoano v. State, 565 So.2d 309, 310-11 (Fla.1990). The condition of Tafero's body was described in the sworn statement of a witness: I have seen the bodies of three other inmates executed by officials of the Florida State Prison. I saw them at approximately the same length of time after they were executed as I saw Mr. Tafero's body. None of the other bodies I saw before had the severe burning and scorching and damage to the head as did Mr. Tafero's. None had any marks on the face at all. The entire top of Mr. Tafero's head is covered with wounds. There is one dominant charred area and a myriad of smaller gouged, raw areas to the upper right side and lower right of the large burned area. The dominant charred area is on the top leftside of the head. It is larger than my hand.... The funeral director said that this was a third degree burn. The rest of that area was a dark brownish color, slightly lighter than the charred area. The funeral director said that this would be a second degree burn. Id. at 314 (Kogan, J., dissenting). The execution of Pedro Medina on March 25, 1997, was a reprise of the Tafero execution. In the words of the trial court below: When Pedro Medina was executed on March 25, 1997, the following events occurred. When the electrical current was activated, within seconds ... smoke emanated from under the right side of Medina's head piece, followed by a 4 to 5 inch yellow-orange flame which lasted 4 to 5 seconds and then disappeared. After the flame went out, more smoke emanated from under the head piece to the extent that the death chamber was filled with smokebut the smoke was not dense enough to impair visibility in or through the chamber. The smoke continued until the electrical current was shut off in the middle of the third cycle. Although several witnesses to the execution tried to describe the odor of the smoke, only one witness, Florida State Prison Superintendent Ronald McAndrews, described the odor as burnt sponge.... This Court finds that the odor smelled was burnt sponge, not burnt flesh. The physician's assistant, William Mathews, examined Medina's body. At that time, Medina was not breathing or exchanging air through his nostrils; his pupils were fixed and dilated; and he had an agonal pulse and heart sounds. When the physician's assistant was no longer able to detect any pulse or heart sounds, the attending physician, Dr. Almojera, examined Medina and pronounced him dead at 7:10 a.m. During Dr. Almojera's last examination Medina's chest was seen to move two or three times in a two to four minute period. A couple of witnesses thought Medina was trying to breathe. Several witnesses did not describe it as attempted breathing, but as a lurching, spasmodic movement, a shudder, and outward not upward movement. No witness, particularly those closest to Medina, could state that he was in fact breathing or attempting to breathe. The trial court summarized the findings of the pathologists who conducted the autopsy of Medina: 1. The head had a burn ring on the crown of the head that was common in executions by judicial electrocution. 2. Within the burn ring there was a third degree burn on the crown of the head, with deposits of charred material.... 3. There was a first degree burn of the upper front face and head, caused by scalding steam.... Unlike the Tafero execution, Medina had no burning of the eyebrows, eyelashes, or small hairs of the face that would have resulted if the burning had been the result of a flame rather than steam. The State points out that during the intervening years between the Tafero and Medina executions, sixteen prisoners were executed without incident. This record in my opinion is inadequate to save Florida's electric chair from the constitutional dustheap. The bottom line is inexorable: In two out of eighteen executions, i.e., in eleven percent of executions, carried out during this relatively brief period, the condemned prisoner was engulfed in smoke, flames, and the odor of burning materialwhich some observers described as the stench of burning or roasting flesh when the switch was pulled. The head of one prisoner (Tafero) was burned and charred, his face was seared by flames, and his eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial hair were burned. The head of another (Medina) was burned and charred and his face was scalded. These deaths were sufficiently egregious to halt further executions and to prompt an extensive official inquiry. They also created a media circus and raucous public spectaclejust like in days of yore.