Florida Catholic | Editorial

Time to stop the executions

Published: 11.09.07

“Repaying cruelty with cruelty does not bring healing. Killing the guilty does not bring back or honor the dead.”
- Florida Catholic Conference

It’s time for Gov. Charlie Crist to call a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Florida. In light of the Florida Supreme Court ruling last week that the state’s new — and supposedly improved — lethal-injection procedures are constitutional, it seems that the governor could issue more death warrants, as he already has done for Mark Dean Schwab, set for Nov. 15.

However, it would be wise and correct for Crist to wait. First, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum told the Tallahassee Democrat he expects the Schwab case to now move through the federal courts. Second, a Kentucky case already pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of lethal injection — specifically, whether it consists of cruel and unusual punishment — may have an impact on cases throughout the country.

Only one execution has gone forward since September, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear the Kentucky case. The court’s ruling in that case will only apply in that specific case. But if the justices decide that lethal injection as generally practiced with a three-drug “cocktail” — one drug to render the inmate unconscious, another to stop respiration and a third to stop the heart — is unconstitutional, that could change everything.

The appeal to the Florida court was prompted by the execution last December of Angel Diaz, which took more than 30 minutes, far longer than usual. Later examinations revealed that the injections completely pierced the inmate’s veins and the drugs went into his arm tissue. The toxins were absorbed too slowly to be quick and effective. Witnesses said Diaz appeared to be in a great deal of pain.

The court eventually determined that Diaz’s execution was not “botched” — after all, he eventually died, which was the purpose of the whole exercise. The fact that he could not cry out was deemed “evidence” that he was not in pain. But some medical experts have said he may have been paralyzed enough so that his vocal chords could not function. Moreover, the court said, whether he took a great deal of time to die or not did not seem to matter, even though it was longer than normal.

Even so, after a study, the state revised the methods of applying the lethal injection and training for those who administer it. This is the process the Florida Supreme Court determined is constitutional. Death penalty opponents say the procedures may still not prevent inmates from suffering painful deaths.

The Catholic Church has many problems with this issue. The Catechism acknowledges that the state has the right to use the ultimate penalty, “if this is the only possible way of defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people‘s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person” (CCC 2267). We acknowledge the great harm done to families of murder victims, but as noted by the Florida Catholic Conference, “Repaying cruelty with cruelty does not bring healing. Killing the guilty does not bring back or honor the dead.”

The bishops of Florida and the United States, therefore, seek an end to the use of the death penalty. The debate over the method is just one more indication of the flawed system. In the past, studies have shown that capital punishment does not deter violent crime, and that poor defendants in capital cases often get inadequate legal advice because they can afford legal counsel with appropriate experience in such cases. Add to this the number of death-row inmates who have been exonerated and we see a system that cries for reform. Life imprisonment without parole, an option available in every state except New Mexico, is an effective and less expensive alternative.

Despite the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court, with a case pending at the federal level, now is the time for Gov. Crist to stop all executions in Florida.

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