State court upholds Fla. executions

By DAVID ROYSE, Associated Press Writer

Thu Nov 1, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state's lethal injection procedures as constitutional, possibly clearing the way for an execution scheduled for this month. 

Ruling in separate appeals filed by two death-row inmates, the justices said Florida's execution methods did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Lethal injection procedures are under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court has allowed only one execution to be carried out since it agreed in September to hear a case from Kentucky that raises a similar challenge.

The state court did not rule specifically on a request for a stay of execution for Mark Dean Schwab, one of the two condemned inmates who challenged the procedure. Schwab is scheduled to be executed Nov. 15 if the stay isn't granted.

Schwab was convicted in the rape and murder of 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez.

"At this time, there is nothing prohibiting Schwab's execution from taking place as scheduled," said Sandi Copes, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Schwab's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Thursday's ruling, the state Supreme Court pointed to safeguards that were put in place after a December execution.

In that execution, it took 34 minutes — twice as long as usual — for convicted killer Angel Diaz to die. A subsequent probe found that the execution, not the underlying procedure, was the problem: Needles had been pushed all the way through Diaz's veins, reducing the effectiveness of the drugs.

The state Department of Corrections made changes, such as improving staffing and training for executions. Death penalty opponents argue the procedures remain insufficient to prevent inmates from suffering painful deaths.

The court rejected Schwab's appeal the same day it dismissed an appeal by condemned inmate Ian Deco Lightbourne. In Lightbourne's case, the Supreme Court said the way the Department of Corrections administers lethal injection is legal.

Suzanne Keffer, an attorney for Lightbourne, said the court didn't hear from state officials on whether the people charged with executing prisoners can do it correctly.

"We don't know what the qualifications of the people involved are. We don't know if the executioners are the same people who botched the Diaz execution," Keffer said.

Keffer said Lightbourne's lawyers were deciding whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Schwab argued in his appeal that the chemical procedure can cause excruciating pain, the same argument in the case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Schwab also had argued that newly discovered evidence would show he suffers from a brain impairment, a claim the state Supreme Court rejected.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections said Thursday that the agency stands ready to carry out an execution if the courts don't intervene.

A date hasn't been set for Lightbourne's execution. Lightbourne was convicted in the 1981 killing of Nancy O'Farrell after breaking into her Marion County home.

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