High court to review chair

U.S. justices' decision could halt executions

By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG and JO BECKER

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 1999

TALLAHASSEE -- Capital punishment in Florida came to a screeching halt Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the constitutionality of the electric chair for the first time in more than a century.

Justices entered an order at 6:45 p.m., granting a stay to condemned killer Anthony Bryan until they decide whether electrocution in Florida is cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.

It is the first time since 1890 that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about the chair, which has been used as the sole execution method in Florida for 75 years. Only three other states still rely on the chair to put killers to death.

The high court's decision to hear oral arguments in Bryan's case comes nearly four months after the bloody execution of Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis -- Florida's third botched execution of the 1990s.

Within hours of the high court's order, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said he will stop signing death warrants and put all electrocutions on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a ruling.

The news marked a huge blow to Bush and other politicians who back the electric chair. House Speaker John Thrasher angrily suggested that he may now even consider lethal injection if the state can continue to execute death row inmates while the Supreme Court decides the chair issue.

"I'm totally frustrated," said Thrasher, who has backed the chair and opposed a switch to lethal injection. "This is a terrible denial of justice to the victims."

But the U.S. Supreme Court's decision gave hope to death penalty critics, who called the court ruling monumental.

Lawyers for death row inmates have argued for nearly a decade that electrocution is barbaric and should be retired along with the guillotine and public hanging.

"It's huge -- I can't put it into words," said Andrew Thomas, the lawyer representing Bryan.

Martin McClain, the New York lawyer who has spearheaded the legal attack on the chair, said the Legislature's refusal to back a more modern death penalty method -- which has been recommended by a state commission that oversees prisons -- led in part to Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court decision.

"Lawmakers in Florida have been demagoguing about the chair and trying to get attention from the media, making outrageous statements about executions designed to appeal to voters," he said.

U.S. Supreme Court justices have signaled for a number of years that they are concerned about electrocution. Last year, four justices indicated they were willing to grant a stay to a condemned inmate who claimed the chair causes "severe mutilation."

But it would have taken five justices to grant a stay; the inmate, Daniel Remeta, was executed.

The difference this year may have been grisly photographs of Davis in the chair moments after his bloody July 8 execution, McClain said.

Attorneys for death row inmates sent the photographs, the first ever made made public of a Florida execution, to the U.S. Supreme Court, along with petitions asking the court to consider the legality of a death penalty method that "inflicts gratuitous pain, violence and mutilation (and) conflicts with the dignity of man by creating a gruesome spectacle."

The color pictures also were posted on the Internet by Florida Justice Leander Shaw, a staunch electric chair opponent.

Last month, a sharply divided Florida Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the chair on behalf of convicted killer Thomas Provenzano, ruling that it instantly causes painless death and can be trusted to "function as intended."

Despite the ruling, six of the seven justices acknowledged problems with electrocution and urged the Legislature to switch to lethal injection.

It was the second time in two years that the court backed the chair on a 4-3 vote. The previous ruling came after the fiery execution of Pedro Medina in 1997. Only seven years earlier, flames shot from the head of inmate Jesse Tafero during his execution.

Those executions, along with the Davis spectacle, have brought worldwide attention, and often criticism, to Florida's continued use of the electric chair.

McClain said a key issue in the high court's review of the chair likely will be whether this 19th-century method of execution should remain legal under evolving standards of decency.

Oral arguments probably will be held sometime in February, McClain said.

Lawyers for Gov. Bush said it could be up to a year before the high court rules.

Corey Tilley, the governor's spokesman, said Bush was surprised and disappointed in the decision. "It's unfortunate that the family members of the victims have to continue to wait for justice," Tilley said.

Bryan, condemned for the 1983 murder of 60-year-old watchman George Wilson, had been been scheduled to die by electrocution this morning.

In a separate appeal, his lawyer told the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday that his original trial attorney had admitted he was an alcoholic when he represented Bryan.

Attorney Andrew Thomas also said that Bryan suffers from various mental problems, including a low IQ. Thomas also said Bryan's original trial attorney failed to properly handle that aspect of the case -- as well as others -- because of his drinking.

Richard Martell, a death penalty-appeals lawyer representing Florida, argued there was nothing new about Bryan's appeal, saying allegations that Bryan had not been adequately represented by a lawyer had been raised and rejected years ago.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision came less than an hour after the Florida Supreme Court granted Bryan a two-day stay to pursue his claims about inadequate legal representation.

Bryan's execution was the second scheduled for this week. But on Monday, the state Supreme Court issued a weeklong stay to condemned murderer Terry Sims, who was convicted of the 1977 murder of an off-duty reserve Deputy George Pfeil.

A third convicted killer, Thomas Provenzano, has received an indefinite stay until a trial court rules on whether he is competent to be executed. Provenzano, convicted of killing an Orlando bailiff and paralyzing two others in an Orlando courthouse shooting, has claimed he was Jesus Christ since his trial 15 years ago.

Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan, who served from 1987-98, said it is hard to know what the decision to review the case could mean.

"They may want to take it to establish once and for that the electric chair is constitutional," Kogan said. "It certainly is interesting, though. I'll be curious to see what the outcome is."

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