Old Sparky Is Done, but Criticism of Florida’s Executions Remains

In a state with an electric chair nicknamed Old Sparky and a history of botched executions, the switch to lethal injection was supposed to make capital punishment almost routine.

But as Florida prepares to put another convicted killer to death today, a controversy has erupted over the state’s ability to kill humanely.

“We have so much zeal to execute as many as we can, as fast as we can, that we keep making blunders,” said Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at the University of Florida.

Earlier this month, Bennie Demps became the third person executed at Florida State Prison by lethal injection, but not before telling witnesses that he had been “butchered” by executioners who struggled to insert catheters into his veins.

In hearings in Orlando last weekend, a lawyer for Thomas Provenzano showed a circuit court judge photographs of Demps’ bloody body--including some of a 3-inch incision in his groin area where technicians were unable to insert an intravenous tube.

An Issue of State’s Competence

Attorney Michael Reiter argued not only that Provenzano--who is under the delusion that he is Jesus--is mentally incompetent, but also that the state is incompetent to kill him humanely.

Provenzano, 50, was convicted of killing a bailiff during a courthouse shooting rampage in 1984.

On Sunday, Judge O.H. Eaton rejected Reiter’s argument, saying he found no evidence that lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The judge did not comment on Provenzano’s competency, which has been affirmed by other courts. Reiter on Monday appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.

Capital punishment is under review--and attack--in several states. Illinois has placed a moratorium on all executions, and there are calls for similar suspensions in California and Oregon--among other states.

That’s due in part to a recent Columbia University study that found two-thirds of all death penalty convictions since 1976 had been riddled with mistakes.

Florida’s error rate was found to be 73%. Since 1972, 21 inmates have been released from Florida’s death row, more than in any other state.

The findings “reveal a system that is wasteful and broken,” the study concludes.

The death penalty has also emerged as a campaign issue for the presumptive Republican presidential contender, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who has presided over 134 executions--more than any other governor in history. (Virginia and Florida rank behind Texas in the number of executions carried out since 1976.)

For Bush’s younger brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the death penalty has proved to be a constant source of controversy. He is a firm death penalty advocate and in January signed a bill designed to speed up the appeals process.

Since Bush took office almost 18 months ago, four executions have taken place in Florida. Not all have gone smoothly.

‘A Low-Tech Lynching by Poison’

The last person to die in the state’s infamous electric chair was a 300-pound triple murderer named Allen Lee Davis, who bled from the nose after an initial jolt failed to kill him. During executions in 1990 and ‘97, flames burst from the heads of inmates electrocuted in Old Sparky.

Bush initially opposed retiring the chair. But he and the GOP-controlled Legislature backed the switch to lethal injection in January after the U.S. Supreme Court was about to review the chair’s use.

The first two executions by lethal injection, both carried out in February, were routine. But when Demps was wheeled on a gurney into the death chamber at Florida State Prison on June 7, he exclaimed to witnesses, “They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain.” Demps called his execution “a low-tech lynching by poison.”

In a statement, Amnesty International called Demps’ killing “especially brutal and prolonged.”

In his arguments, Reiter said that since the condemned are hooked up to intravenous tubes behind closed doors, “it is difficult to know if something cruel and unusual is going on.”

Because of the state’s recent problems in conducting executions, “eventually we’re going to see supporters of the death penalty saying: ‘This is not worth the hassle,’ ” Radelet predicted. “It’s so costly, and we don’t do it right.

“The problem,” Radelet added, “is that even though we got rid of the electric chair, we have the same executioners. The lack of mercy, along with the bungled method, makes this unworkable.”

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Times researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this story.