High Court to Review Use of Florida’s Electric Chair

Breaking its customary avoidance of death penalty cases, the Supreme Court has agreed to review whether Florida’s use of the electric chair amounts to cruel and inhuman punishment and thus violates the U.S. Constitution.

Apparent malfunctions in Florida’s electric chair have resulted in several grisly executions in recent years--twice when flames erupted from the headpiece placed on the condemned men and a third instance when blood stained the cloth mask covering the convict’s face.

Consent of at least four of the high court’s nine justices is required to accept a case for full briefs and oral arguments. The court’s bare-bones statement distributed Wednesday did not reveal which justices wanted to review Florida’s planned use of the electric chair to execute Anthony Bryan for a 1983 murder. His execution had been scheduled for Wednesday night.

His execution--and, presumably, any use of electrocution--will be blocked until the justices hear arguments next February, review briefs and issue an opinion, probably by early next summer.

Georgia, Alabama and Nebraska also use the electric chair. Once 26 states used electrocution, but most of the 38 states with the death penalty have switched to lethal injections.

The Supreme Court has not reviewed the issue since 1890, when it upheld use of the electric chair.

The justices in 1976 held that capital punishment did not violate the 8th Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.