Florida executions halted after botched injection

POSTED: 4:05 p.m. EST, December 15, 2006

Angel Diaz was executed Wednesday for the 1979 murder of a Miami strip club manager. Officials needed two doses of drugs to execute him.

Story Highlights

• NEW: A Florida execution was botched when the chemicals went into soft tissue
• Angel Diaz took 34 minutes and two drug cocktails to die
• Witnesses believe he was mouthing a prayer as he slowly died
• Diaz was convicted of the 1979 murder of a Miami strip club manager

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OCALA, Florida (AP) -- The execution of a convicted killer took 34 minutes -- twice as long as normal -- because officials botched the insertion of the needles that delivered the lethal chemicals, a medical examiner said Friday.

Gov. Jeb Bush responded to the findings by halting the signing of more death warrants until a commission he created to examine the state's lethal injection process completes its final report by March 1.

Dr. William Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, said the needles pierced Angel Nieves Diaz's veins and then went into soft tissue in his arms. The lethal chemicals are supposed to go directly into the veins.

Hamilton refused to say whether he thought Diaz died a painful death.

"I am going to defer answers about pain and suffering until the autopsy is complete," he said. He said the results were preliminary and toxicology tests and other tests may take several weeks.

Diaz, 55, was put to death Wednesday for murdering of the manager of a Miami topless bar during a holdup in 1979. The condemned man not only took 34 minutes to die, but also needed a rare second dose of the lethal chemicals. (Watch officials explain why it took 2 injections and 34 minutes )

The medical examiner's findings contradicted the explanation given by prison officials, who said Diaz needed the second dose because liver disease caused him to metabolize the lethal drugs more slowly.

Hamilton said that although there were records that Diaz had hepatitis, his liver appeared normal.

In halting the signing of any more death warrants, the governor said he wants to ensure the process does constitute cruel and unusual punishment, as some death penalty foes argued bitterly after Wednesday's execution.

Executions in Florida normally take no more than about 15 minutes, with the inmate rendered unconscious and motionless within three to five minutes. But Diaz appeared to be moving 24 minutes after the first injection, grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and appearing to mouth words.

As a result of the chemicals going into Diaz's arms around the elbow, he had an 12-inch chemical burn on his right arm and an 11-inch chemical burn on his left arm, Hamilton said.

Florida Corrections Secretary James McDonough said the execution team did not see any swelling of the arms, which would have been an indication that the chemicals were going into tissues and not veins.

David Elliot, spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said experts his group had contacted suspected that liver disease was not the explanation for the problem.

"Florida has certainly deservedly earned a reputation for being a state that conducts botched executions, whether its electrocution or lethal injection," Elliot said. "We just think the Florida death penalty system is broken from start to finish."