Bloody Florida Execution Spurs Questions

A storm of controversy erupted here Thursday after blood poured from the nose of a convicted murderer as he was hit with 2,300 volts in Florida’s brand-new electric chair, prompting the state Supreme Court to stay an execution scheduled for today.

Allen Lee Davis, 54--who at 350 pounds was known as “Tiny”--was put to death for the murders of a pregnant woman and her two daughters during a robbery 17 years ago.

He was the first person executed in the replacement for “Old Sparky,” the three-legged chair built by prisoners in 1923. More than 225 condemned killers had been put to death in “Old Sparky,” including one in 1997 whose head erupted in flames.

According to witnesses, Davis’ execution was nearly as gruesome. After the executioner flipped the switch, “there was blood appearing on his shirt as well as the face of the executed man,” said John Koch, a reporter for Florida’s Radio Network. “This execution of Tiny Davis was not bloodless. The man obviously suffered.”

The execution was the first carried out under a warrant signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and his spokesman was quick to deny that the chair had malfunctioned. “Nothing went wrong,” Cory Tilley said. “The chair functioned as it was designed to function, and we’re comfortable that that worked.”

Contrary to reports from some witnesses, Tilley said no blood came from the mouth or chest of Davis. “He had a nosebleed. Why that was will be in the autopsy,” Tilley said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida on Thursday called for a moratorium on all executions. “Criminals no doubt deserve to be punished,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the group. “But Florida’s record of executions, and the Legislature’s obsession with electrocution as the method of execution, has been barbaric.”

Florida is one of just four states that still use the electric chair.

Amnesty International USA official Sam Jordan also called on the nation and the state to end all capital punishment. “There is no way for them to know when he died or how much suffering there was,” Jordan said of Davis.

Late Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court issued an order staying until Sept. 14 the execution of Thomas Provenzano, 50, who was convicted in a 1984 Orlando courthouse shooting that left one bailiff dead and two others paralyzed. Provenzano had been scheduled to die today.

The court said it would hear oral arguments on all issues related to Provenzano’s case on Aug. 24 and ordered a lower court to hold a hearing by Aug. 2 on the functioning of the electric chair.

Lawyers for Davis earlier had tried to block his execution by saying the voltage in the old chair was insufficient to cause a painless death in a man so large. Fat is a poor conductor of electricity, they argued. The appeal was turned down.

The state did build a new chair but did not replace the electrical equipment, including the leather headgear that delivers the fatal charge. Improperly moistened sponges in the headgear were blamed for causing the blue flames that leaped from the head of Pedro Medina when he was electrocuted in 1997.

Davis, who had to be rolled to the death chamber in a wheelchair, was taking two blood thinners that may have led to his nosebleed, according to a doctor who examined the body after the execution. Victor Selyutin said he saw no evidence that blood came from anywhere other than Davis’ nose.

Davis was convicted of the 1982 murder of Nancy Weiler and her daughters during a burglary at her Jacksonville home. Prosecutors said Davis forced Weiler, 37, to watch him shoot her daughters, ages 9 and 5, before he killed her.

Watching the execution was John Weiler, the husband and father of the victims. “I can assure you my God approves,” he said.

Times researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this story.