OFFMEN International

Florida Halts Executions After Injection Problem

By ADAM LIPTAK and TERRY AGUAYO
Published: December 15, 2006
Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida suspended all executions in the state today, citing a troubled execution on Wednesday and appointing a commission to consider the humanity and constitutionality of the way inmates are put to death in the state.

Hours later, a federal judge ruled that California’s death penalty protocol violated the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Opponents of the death penalty cheered the decisions. “Today has been the most significant day in the history of the death penalty in the America in many years,” said Jamie Fellner, the director of United States programs for Human Rights Watch.

“These developments show that the current lethal-injection protocols pose an unacceptable risk of cruelty,” Ms. Fellner said. “The way states have been killing people for the last 30 years has yielded botched execution after botched execution.”