“Mr. Walls will die a needlessly cruel death if Florida insists on trying to kill him with Florida’s version of lethal injection,” a doctor wrote in an affidavit submitted to the court.
A Florida inmate expected to be put to death next week has filed a lawsuit claiming that the state has used expired drugs in at least four of its most recent executions.
According to The Tampa Bay Times, the lawsuit states that prison supply logs indicate that executioners in at least two other cases used lower doses than required by Florida’s lethal injection protocol. The plaintiff, Frank Walls, accuses the state prison system of negligence and requests a stay of execution.
In court documents, Walls said that he fears he will likely experience severe pain if he is administered expired drugs. Walls’s attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Sean Gunn, said that an execution conducted under such circumstances would be “constitutionally repugnant” and in violation of the Eight Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
“Mr. Walls is at a heightened risk of a disastrous execution in light of (the prison system’s) documented negligence in adhering to their own protocol,” Gunn wrote in the lawsuit.
Florida, in turn, said that Walls’s lawsuit is little more than a last-minute attempt to stave off his own death.
“He has been in poor health for years, but waited until the eve of his execution to file suit long after the time to do so had passed,” Florida Assistant Attorney General Jason Rodriguez wrote.
Walls was sentenced to death for the 1987 murders of Edward Alger and Ann Peterson in Florida’s Okaloosa County. He attacked the couple after breaking into their home, bound and gagged them, and then killed both, slashing Alger’s throat and shooting Peterson twice in the head.
The lawsuit contains an affidavit from Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, George. In his submission, Zivot said Walls’ poor health—he is morbidly obese, has heart disease, a thyroid disorder, and obstructive lung disease—increases his risk of suffering complications during execution. For example, Zivot suggested that Walls’s lungs could fill with blood, which could cause him to choke.
“Mr. Walls will die a needlessly cruel death if Florida insists on trying to kill him with Florida’s version of lethal injection,” Zivot wrote.
The Tampa Bay Times notes that, on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker issued an order denying Walls’s request to stay the execution. Walker conceded the possibility that Walker could suffer an unpleasant death but found the inmate had ample opportunity to raise such concerns at an earlier date.
Sources
Florida death row inmate claims prison officials used expired drugs in 4 recent executions: lawsuit
Florida used expired execution drugs, lower doses, lawsuit claims
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