[FADPUpdate] Fla. Execution News

[melliott3 at aol.com]

Friends,

The U.S. Supreme Court is meeting today on lifting the stay of 
execution for Mark Schwab.  Insiders say that if the stay is lifted, a 
new execution date may be announced as early as Monday.

----Mark

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By DARA KAM

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — The U.S. Supreme Court will meet Thursday to decide 
whether to lift the stay on the execution of Florida Death Row inmate 
Mark Schwab.

State death penalty lawyers say they expect the justices could rule as 
early as Thursday and put executions by lethal injection back on track 
in Florida. Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a moratorium in December 2006 
following the protracted execution of Angel Diaz. Diaz took more than 
30 minutes to die from the triple-drug cocktail, which usually takes 
effect within minutes.



A nationwide hiatus on the death penalty has been in effect for the 
past seven months until the high court rejected a challenge to lethal 
injection in a Kentucky case in which two condemned inmates said the 
procedure amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited 
by the Constitution.

The court is now considering the Schwab case and could lift the stay 
ordered by a federal judge in November just hours before Schwab, who 
was convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of 11-year-old Junny 
Rios-Martinez in Brevard County. The high court could also grant oral 
arguments on the case, which lawyers for Death Row inmates said they do 
not expect.

Gov. Charlie Crist signed Schwab's death warrant last year and is 
expected to quickly move to reinstate it, Crist's spokeswoman Erin 
Isaac said Wednesday.

"I don't know when that would happen but the governor will move forward 
with (the execution)," Isaac said.

Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum hastened to expedite Schwab's 
execution in the aftermath of the court's Kentucky decision on April 
16. McCollum sent a request overnight to the U.S. Supreme Court asking 
for permission to go ahead with the lethal injection. Crist's office is 
reviewing other Death Row cases and said recently that he plans to sign 
other warrants soon.

Last week, Georgia officials executed convicted killer Michael Earl 
Lynde, the first execution since the high court's ruling.

Officials in other states are rushing forward to resume executions by 
lethal injection as well. Texas has six slated this summer and Virginia 
has scheduled three.

Lawyers for Florida Death Row inmates hold a shred of hope that Diaz's 
prolonged death put the state's lethal injection in a separate category 
from other states.

But Department of Corrections officials have revised their procedures 
and they, McCollum and Crist say they have no doubts about the state's 
new protocol.

"I'm very confident of it. We have gone through a lot of procedural 
changes since the Diaz execution. We have seen it tested in our courts 
... and through the state Supreme Court," said McCollum. "I feel very 
comfortable and confident that our procedures are as satisfactory as 
you can get."

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Sent by:

Mark Elliott
Executive Director
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org

2840 W. Bay Drive, #118
Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770
(727)215-9646
mark at fadp.org