9:15 p.m. – Several dozen television journalists are sitting in satellite trucks, putting together their 11 p.m. packages. Waiting in an empty van at the entrance to the media area sits a corrections officer. It’s his job to make sure the area is secure until all the journalists go home.
In a few hours, this scene will dissipate.
The television trucks will leave, the reporters will go home.
The security guard as well.
But the macabre circus of death will return.
Robert Trease, who killed a Sarasota man named Paul Edenson in 1997 during a robbery, is the next man up for a date with the needle, according to the state Department of Corrections web site.
No date has been set.

8:43 p.m. – When I first started in journalism, I wrote politics. I never thought I would write anything else.
These days, it seems, most of what I write about involves grisly murders or some other sort of violence. I always say, you don’t want your name under my byline.
If so, it’s not a good day. Most likely, either someone did something to you or you did something to someone else.
Often, I’m asked if the crime stories, day after day, get to me. They don’t really. I’m very good at not internalizing.
An hour or so after Rolling’s execution, I pondered the question again. So many people had asked me as I was heading to Starke to report about an execution, if I was at all disturbed.
My thought process was interrupted by two TV journalists from competing stations, yelling back and forth.
“You covering the Gator game this weekend?” one asked.
“Yeah, see you there,” the other yelled back.
This is a job.

6:13 p.m. - It’s all over.
The governor’s office says Danny Harold Rolling, 52, has been executed by lethal injection for the 1990 murders of five college students, according to the Associated Press.
Rolling was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., according to the AP, more than 16 years after his killing rampage at the start of the University of Florida’s fall semester.

Prison officials handed out copies of death penalty procedure. The step-by-step rules describing how the state government dolls out it most severe punishment.

About two hours before an execution:

—The first floor of the death chamber wing is evacuated except for necessary personnel and witnesses from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

—One member of the execution team prepares the lethal chemicals under the watch of other team members. The chemical concoction includes three different drugs. Sodium pentothal is used to sedate Rolling. Pancuronium bromide is used to paralyze him. Potassium chloride will stop the heart. A fourth syringe, filled with saline, will clear the veins after death.

—Another member of the execution team will deliver the drugs to the execution room. The lethal drugs will remain in the locked room until the executioners arrive.

—Another member of the execution team will explain to Rolling the drugs used and how they will be administered. Rolling will be offered a Valium. He can refuse if he wishes.

—Media witnesses will then be picked up and escorted to the prison.

One hour before execution:

—Executioners report to the execution chamber

—Each execution team member is tested by mouth for drugs and alcohol.

—A member of the team tests the telephones to make sure they are working.

—Another member of the team will make sure the PA system is working

A half-hour before the execution:

—Witnesses enter the witnessing room

—A member of the execution team will make telephone contact with the governor’s office.

—The warden will read the warrant of execution

—Rolling will be secured with wrist restraints

—A heart monitor will be attached

—IVs will be put into each arm

—Rolling will be wheeled into the execution chamber

Execution:

—The warden will talk to the governor to see if a stay has been entered.

—Rolling can make a statement

—The executioner will push the syringes one by one. After each syringe is emptied, he or she will hand the empty syringes to a second executioner standing nearby.

—When the heart monitor shows a flat line, a doctor will determine if Rolling is dead.

—The warden notifies the governor that the death sentence has been carried out.

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