Post-execution photos become Net sensation

Associated Press

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on October 7, 1999.

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw thought photos of Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis strapped in the electric chair after his bloody execution provided a graphic illustration that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment.

But people around the world have used the Internet to view the photographs, which Shaw attached to his opinion against the electric chair. And many have reached a different conclusion.

"I am a 33-year-old mother of two young children who expected to be disturbed by these pictures," one woman wrote in an e-mail to Craig Waters, a spokesman for the state's high court who helps manage the court's Web page. "I looked anyway. To my surprise, I felt nothing but relief that this scum is now long gone!"

Like all decisions by the Florida Supreme Court, the Sept. 24 electric chair opinion with its accompanying photos is available on the court's Web site. The response has been overwhelming.

So many people have tried to download the photos that one of the court's two servers has crashed several times.

Waters has received more than 300 e-mails from people looking for the pictures. Most of them favor capital punishment.

Chat rooms and news groups on the Internet are also talking about the photos.

"Unfortunately, the public does not have ready access to the photos of his three victims, whom Davis raped and slaughtered," one person wrote.

Davis, 54, was executed July 8 for murdering a pregnant Jacksonville woman and her two young daughters in May 1982. He was not convicted of raping his victims.

The addresses  for the pages with the photos: www.firn.edu/supct/deathwarrants and http://www.flcourts.org/courts/supct/deathwarrants/

[Posted 10/06/1999 11:32 PM EST]