Inmates Want to Delay Death Because
of Photos
Oct. 8, 1999
By David Noack
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (APBnews.com) -- The attempt by two Florida
killers to delay their executions by arguing that they know too much
of what it's like to die in the electric chair should be denied,
said the state's top law enforcement officer.
State Attorney General Bob Butterworth, in motions made to the
Florida Supreme Court on Thursday, said that since the court had
just ruled the electric chair is a constitutional means of capital
punishment, the legal arguments to delay the next round of scheduled
executions should be dismissed.
The unusual legal
maneuvering comes after the high court, by a narrow vote, recently
upheld the constitutionality of the electric chair. But in the
process, a number of the justices' opinions described in graphic
detail what happens in the death chamber, and one justice released
three photographs online of a recent execution.
The two men claim that the detailed information and graphic
photos highlight the barbaric nature of using the chair and that
they are suffering psychological stress knowing what will happen.
Picture shows man bleeding
The effort to delay and overturn the constitutionality of the
electric chair was made by Terry Melvin Sims and Anthony Braden
Bryan, who are scheduled to die Oct. 26 and Oct. 27, respectively.
Both killers are on death row at the Florida State Prison in Starke.
Court spokesman Craig Waters said the court has not scheduled a
date to hear the appeals and can dismiss the claims without a
hearing.
The inmates' legal effort was made after the court, by a 4-3
vote, upheld the use of the electric chair in a previous death row
case.
However, the court's opinions included detailed language as to
what happens in the death chamber, and one dissenting judge, Leander
J. Shaw Jr., even posted three graphic color photographs of Allen
Lee "Tiny" Davis, who was electrocuted in July. They show Davis
strapped to the chair and bleeding from his nose onto a white shirt.
Inmates raise constitutional issues
The death chamber photos posted to the court's Web site have
generated so much online traffic that the computer crashed.
It was the detailed accounts and the photos that prompted the two
men to appeal. In their legal papers, they claimed that the use of
the electric chair is a violation of the Eighth Amendment's "cruel
and unusual punishment" clause.
In legal papers filed on behalf of Sims, his lawyers argue: "This
court has created conditions in which Mr. Sims will suffer severe
psychological torment prior to his execution. 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."
Lawyers for Bryan contend that Florida's method of carrying out
executions "poses substantial risks of unnecessary pain, mutilation
and degradation."
Butterworth said the claims have "no legal or rational basis."
In the Sims case, Butterworth said the court should deny the stay
of execution, "especially when such a request is based upon
speculative suggestions concerning the future course of this
litigation."
Follows postponement of execution
He said the court's narrow ruling to uphold the use of the
electric chair should have no bearing on granting a delay.
Butterworth called Bryan's request "frivolous at best."
The two 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.
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.
