By a 4-3 vote, justices decided electrocution is neither cruel nor unusual, rejecting appeals by Death Row inmate Thomas Provenzano, who awaits a date with the oak chair at Florida State Prison. But a dissenting justice, Leander Shaw, called the chair ``ghastly'' and ``a spectacle whose time has passed,'' and included grisly color photos of a bleeding inmate at Florida's last execution.
Even Chief Justice Major Harding, who wrote the lead opinion, urged lawmakers to give Death Row inmates the option of lethal injection so that inmates won't continue to appeal their sentences by challenging the chair's reliability, citing, as Provenzano did, malfunctions in three executions over the past decade.
``Each time an execution is carried out, the courts wait in dread anticipation of some `unforeseeable accident' that will set in motion a frenzy of inmate petitions and other filings,'' wrote Harding, who noted that, across the country, ``the modern trend is towards rejecting electrocution as a form of capital punishment.''
Nevertheless, Harding concluded that there was ``abundant evidence that execution by electrocution renders an inmate instantaneously unconscious, thereby making it impossible to feel pain.''
It was Harding who, as a circuit judge in 1983, sentenced Allen Lee Davis to the electric chair, and it was Davis' bloody July 8 execution that led to legal challenges by Provenzano that ended with Friday's decision.
Harding was joined in the majority by Charles Wells and the court's two newest members, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince. The dissenting justices were Shaw, Harry Lee Anstead and Barbara Pariente.
`BARBARIC' DEVICE
``The color photos of Davis depict a man who, for all appearances, was brutally tortured to death by the citizens of Florida,'' Shaw wrote. ``No other country in the world uses electrocution as a means of execution,'' he added, underlining the words for emphasis.
The ruling marks the second time in two years that Florida's highest court has ruled in favor of the chair by a 4-3 vote.
Death Row attorney Martin McClain, who argued against the chair on Provenzano's behalf, said he was disappointed with the ruling but predicted the chair's days are numbered. He said an appeal of Friday's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court was possible.
``Harding is beseeching the Legislature to please change the method of execution,'' McClain said. ``Harding and Lewis are saying `Someone save us from this mess. We shouldn't be doing this anymore, but we're just not prepared to say the Constitution requires a change.'''
DEFENDERS APPLAUD
Gov. Jeb Bush, who this week signed two more death warrants, called the decision ``a resounding victory for all Floridians'' and said in a statement: ``I am pleased that the court affirmed what the vast majority of Floridians strongly believe: that the chair is neither cruel nor unusual as a method of execution.''
House Speaker John Thrasher, R-Orange Park, who last month toured the death chamber, said he was ``gratified'' by the decision. Thrasher added he would consult lawmakers on the lethal injection issue but that the chair is ``the appropriate method of capital punishment'' in Florida.
Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, who has filed legislation for the 2000 session to alter the form of execution to lethal injection, said the electric chair would continue to be the source of long appeals and sentencing delays. Friday's decision, Klein said, supports his view that ``we are not using the most effective means of punishment.''
Only three other states -- Alabama, Georgia and Nebraska -- still use electrocution as the only form of capital punishment.
Herald Staff Writer Lesley Clark contributed to this report.
