Florida Voters Favor Lethal Injections

A majority of Florida voters favors executing condemned prisoners by lethal injection rather than in the state’s electric chair, which has in the past caused flames to spurt from the heads of inmates, a poll says. In the statewide survey of 600 registered voters, 58% said they favored lethal injection, while 23% opposed it and 18% said they were undecided. The poll has an error margin of 4 percentage points. In 1997, flames burst from the head of convict Pedro Medina as he was executed in the chair, the second such incident in 10 years. Twice since then, the state Supreme Court has upheld the use of the chair in 4-3 decisions.