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By Crystal Lauderdale
The Tampa Tribune
4:22 p.m.
Commissioners and observers have packed up for the day.
Mark Elliott, the director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has been to every meeting so far and plans to maintain his attendance.
‘’The information coming out is being heard, a lot of it, for the first time by a lot of people,’’ said Elliott. ‘’It’s extremely important to get this into the public arena.’’
The commission will reconvene Saturday for a workshop to discuss their preliminary report to Governor Crist.
3:49 p.m.
With the floor open to the masses, the Commission heard only one voice from the people today. Mary Berglund spoke on behalf of The League of Women Voters of Florida.
3:23 p.m.
Death Penalty facts from www.deathpenalty.org:
- Approximately 84 percent of executions in the United States have been through lethal injection since its adoption in 1977.
- Thirty-seven states, the U.S. military and the U.S. government hold lethal injection as their preferred method of execution.
- Nine states, including Florida, offer electrocution as an option. Nebraska is the only state that requires electrocution.
- Five states uses the gas chamber, but all of them offer lethal injection as an alternative.
- New Hampshire and Washington allow hanging but offer lethal injection as an alternative.
- There have been 38 botched executions since 1982. Twenty-six of them were lethal injection procedures.
- Five botched executions, including Diaz’, took place in Florida. Three of them were electrocutions. Two were lethal injection procedures.
Descriptions of Death Penalty Methods
2:55 p.m.
Today, the commission on lethal injection has heard testimony from medical professionals, execution team members and officials from the Florida Department of Corrections.
They are scheduled to take comments from the public in just a few moments.
11:41 a.m.
Harry Singletary reviews the agenda for a meeting of the Governor’s Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection. - Crystal L. Lauderdale/Tampa Tribune
Wikipedia biography of Angel Nieves Diaz
Angel Nieves Diaz, a native of Puerto Rico, is the inspiration for the Governor’s Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection.
Nieves Diaz was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of Joseph Nagy, a manager of a Miami topless bar.
On December 13, 2006 Nieves Diaz was administered lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Starke. The execution, which normally takes 15 minutes to complete, took 34 minutes.
Factors to consider include:
1) Medical reports state that the needles were incorrectly inserted into his veins slowing the flow of chemicals through his bloodstream. Diaz had chemical burns on both arms.
2) The executioner testified that his only training took place seven years ago when Florida switched its preferred method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection.
All Florida executions have been put on hold pending the Commission’s final report.
Lethal injection is the preferred method of execution in 37 states.
—Tampa Tribune reporter Kevin Begos contributed to this blog entry.
Mark Elliott, the director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, of Clearwater, chats with a fellow observer before the start of the Governor’s Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection meeting. - Crystal L. Lauderdale/Tampa Tribune
10:33 a.m.
Doctors, advocates and state officials are gathered at the Tampa Airport Marriott today charged with the task of analyzing and possibly revising the state’s lethal injection procedures.
On December 15, 2006 then-governor Jeb Bush issued Executive Order 06-260 creating the Governor’s Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection. The order was issued following the botched execution of Angel Nieves Diaz on December 13, 2006.
The Commission will meet in Tampa throughout the month of February, and a final report is due to Governor Crist on March 1. Meetings are open to the public. The floor will be open for statements and opinions between 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. today.
Death Penalty facts from www.deathpenaltyinfo.org:
- Approximately 84 percent of executions in the United States have been through lethal injection since its adoption in 1977.
- Thirty-seven states, the U.S. military and the U.S. government hold lethal injection as their preferred method of execution.
- Nine states, including Florida, offer electrocution as an option. Nebraska is the only state that requires electrocution.
- Five states uses the gas chamber, but all of them offer lethal injection as an alternative.
- New Hampshire and Washington allow hanging but offer lethal injection as an alternative.
- There have been 38 botched executions since 1982. Twenty-six of them were lethal injection procedures.
- Five botched executions, including Diaz’, took place in Florida. Three of them were electrocutions. Two were lethal injection procedures.
Description of methods of execution: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=479
Who cares how long it takes. These scumbags didn’t care how long it took to hurt someone else or their families. We should show no mercy for these low lifes, they deserve what they get. We need to do away with lethal injections and back to the chair. We should go back to the old times when we either shot them or would hang them.
I have witnessed two of my ailing pets euthanized by my veternarian. This was done quickly and with no apparent distress. Perhaps the vet. in Stark, Fl.
could be retained to do the executions or at least train the personel properly.
Seriously, is the budget so strained that an R.N. couldn’t be hired for a few hours? David Smith may have an idea
worth exploring (a pistol would be quick and a vein doesn’t have to be entered)!
So it took 34 minutes, it really took over 20 years. The murder occured in 1979. The issue here really should be the time to get to the execution. Why is it cruel for execution to take 34 minutes but fine to take over twenty years to get a sentence administered?
no more lethal injection.
no more electric chair.
no more hanging.
use a pistol instead, guranteed results.
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Posted by laith kadoura, tampa on 03/06 at 10:58 AM
Although it did take 34 minutes this person had to wait for years to actually be sentenced to death. Imagine waiting years and years to find out if u will live or die. Every person should have a second chance. i do not agree with the death penalty at all i think that a person that has committed a crime should be punished in jail not to death. If the death penalty is the way to go then its just like committing the same crime that the person did and the cycle just goes around and around. God should be the only one to have the say of whether or not a person lives.