Friday, December 15, 2006

Bush Suspends Executions in Florida After Botched Injection

The AJC's Ron Word has a horrifying account of the botched execution by lethal injection of Angel Nieves Diaz in the state of Florida and the resulting suspension by Gov. Jeb Bush.

When the procedure is done correctly, it normally takes about 15 minutes with the condemned unconscious at least by the 3 to 5 minute mark. But according to Word's article, this execution took 34 minutes. Witnesses said that Diaz was moving, blinking, licking his lips, and looked to be trying to say something at the 24 minute mark. He also had burn marks in his arms where the needles were inserted.

This is terrible. And this should never happen in the greatest nation in the world. Gov. Bush did the right thing in supsending executions until further notice. This will definitely be another black mark on our country's record of executing people.

1 comment:

Button Gwinnett said...

Neither of them seem to mind doing it, Steve. The death penalty is something that I've gone back and forth on. I can no longer justify it by simply saying, "an eye for an eye." But if we're going to have it, we've got to at least do it right.