Say Details Released in Court
Torment Killers
Oct. 6, 1999
By David Noack
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (APBnews.com) -- Shaken by detailed accounts
and photographs of what happens in the electric chair, the next two
men scheduled to be executed in Florida have asked the state Supreme
Court to declare electrocution unconstitutional.
Terry Melvin Sims is slated to die at 7 a.m. Oct. 26 for killing
George Pfeil, a Central Florida police officer. Anthony Braden
Bryan, another murderer, has his date with death Oct. 27.
Cruel and unusual punishment argued
Sims' appeal, filed Friday by the West Palm Beach Public
Defender's Office, contends electrocution exposes him to
"substantial risks of suffering and degradation through physical
violence, disfigurement and torment," which would be a violation of
the Eighth Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
And on Tuesday, attorneys for Bryan also appealed to the state
Supreme Court, making legal arguments on Bryan's behalf that mirror
those made by Sims.
In a separate motion, Sims' lawyers have asked the court for a
stay of execution and say they intend to take the electric chair
case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge posted photos online
The appeals both come after the condemned men learned explicit
details of the execution of another killer, Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis,
who hemorrhaged blood during his recent electrocution.
They learned those details through the failed appeal of yet
another death row inmate, Thomas Provenzano, whose case inspired a
dissenting judge to post three graphic photos of Davis' death
online. Provenzano's execution was postponed pending a psychological
evaluation.
The appeals filed for Sims and now Bryan say they are suffering
psychological distress by knowing what happened to Davis, and blame
the court.
In turning down Provenzano by a 4-3 vote just a couple of weeks
ago, the Florida Supreme Court, for the third time this decade,
ruled that the electric chair is not cruel and unusual punishment.
Justice Leander J. Shaw Jr., in his dissenting opinion that was
posted online, included three color photographs of Davis and argued
that electrocution causes unnecessary pain and suffering. The
photographs show Davis, bleeding from his nose onto a white shirt
with numerous purple marks around his face, following his execution.
'Made into a human torch'
Attorneys for Sims and Bryan cite those details in their cases.
"This court has created conditions in which Mr. Sims will suffer
severe psychological torment prior to his execution," reads part of
the appeal. "Members of this court ... have vividly described all
the things that can and do happen to an inmate during a Florida
judicial execution, and have even published color photographs of
these effects."
Another part says, "Persons executed by Florida's practice of
judicial electrocution face an unconstitutional risk of being
tormented and dehumanized."
The brief also says that Sims must wait on death row "with these
pictures in mind," knowing what will be done to him.
"Florida's practice of judicial electrocution places Mr. Sims at
an unacceptable risk of being made into a human torch while being
burned and scalded on his forehead and face," say court papers.
Bryan's appeal is similar. It says: "Mr. Bryan must await his
imminent meeting with Florida's electric chair with these pictures
firmly imprinted in his mind, acutely aware of the evidence of what
will be done to his body, and in legitimate and substantiated fear
that what is typically unseen under the death mask -- the
excruciating pain intrinsic to Florida's use of judicial
electrocution -- will happen to him."
Shot during robbery
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Florida's
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Court spokesman Craig Waters declined to comment, citing ethics
rules. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Debra Buchanan said the
department does not comment on litigation.
Sims, whose death warrant was signed by Gov. Jeb Bush on Sept.
23, was sentenced to death for the December 1977 shooting death of
Pfeil, an off-duty sheriff's deputy who walked into a pharmacy that
Sims and three others were robbing.
Sims was wounded in the hip but able to escape. He was captured
six months later in California and extradited to Florida.
Bryan was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 12, 1983,
murder of a night security man at a seafood wholesale company. The
man was kidnapped from Mississippi and killed with a shotgun blast
to the face in Santa Rosa County.
Controversial executions
Over the last several years, Florida's electric chair has been
the subject of controversy, created by a series of mechanical and
electrical malfunctions.
Jesse Tafero had flames shoot from his headpiece when he was
executed in 1990, as did Pedro Medina when he was executed in 1997.
Court challenges followed both cases, with the state's high court
upholding the use of the chair.
Currently, 38 states have capital punishment, with Alabama,
Florida, Georgia and Nebraska using electrocution as the sole method
of execution.
