>Revisiting our discussion of several months' ago, concerning whether
>capital punishment is consistent with a civilized society, I thought the
>following -- from today's Slate -- would be of interest:
>
>Florida Juice: The Sunshine State's love affair with the electric
>chair.
>
>By Ellen McGarrahan (Ellen McGarrahan is a private detective.)
>
>Some things you can't escape--can't burn them, can't box them up, can't
>run far enough or fast enough away. I thought of Jesse Tafero earlier
>this month when I read about the execution of Bud Davis in the Florida
>electric chair. Davis started to bleed when the electricity hit him,
>soaking his shirt bright red, scaring the assembled witnesses. "The
>chair functioned as it was designed to function," is what Florida Gov.
>Jeb Bush's press secretary said.
>
(SNIP)
FL has a new electric chair now. They built a new one a couple of years ago (the previous one had been in use since the electrocutions began) because the corrections people were worried that Davis, at 344 pounds, was too heavy for the chair. The new one was built and sat in the Museum of Corrrections in Starke for a couple of years--the dem. gov. was apparently worried about the politics of replacing the chair. Jeb brought thenew chair in.
After Davis's bloody death (which apparently took a while) one of our state reps. who had witnessed the execution said the blood on his chest was in the shape of a cross, and this, to her, was a clear sign that God was watching the proceedings and approved of them. Incidentally, Davis got some really exceptional medical treatment before the execution, the state went to great lengths to keep him alive so they could kill him. He went to the chair in a wheelchair--he was no longer able to walk.
In most states the person about to be executed is offered some kind sedative. In Fl, instead of the sedative, the person spends the month before being executed in a particularly awful solitarry confinment. I read in yesterday's paper that they do this so the inmate is "completely broken" by the time of the execution.
One death row inmate (who was there for killing a cop) recently died while guards weretrying to "subdue him." Prison officials are having trouble explaining all the bootmarks on the man's body, and why every single one of his ribs were broken.
Frances