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``Generally in an execution, the skin is charred black,'' McClain said. ``Dr. Kirschner said it was not.''
Kirschner wants to look at pictures from the initial autopsy performed the day of the execution before he reaches any conclusions, McClain said.
Lawyers for Provenzano, who is scheduled to be executed Sept. 14 for the shooting death of a bailiff, have charged that Davis did not receive a big enough jolt of electricity to kill him instantly.
Kirschner was traveling back to Chicago late Saturday and could not be reached.
Davis' bloody death July 8 in the electric chair prompted calls to permanently retire the chair and convinced the Florida Supreme Court to postpone Provenzano's execution until a judge determines whether the chair can reliably provide a quick and painless death.
Department of Corrections officials and Gov. Jeb Bush have maintained that the chair functioned properly.
Provenzano's attorney last week successfully blocked Davis' scheduled cremation to conduct the autopsy.
Kirschner is expected to testify at the hearings on the chair in Orlando July 28-30.
Kirschner also found that Davis' brain was ``not cooked,'' McClain said, leading the pathologist to believe there was a ``potential for brain activity'' and that Davis might have been ``functionally able to feel pain.''
That would be ``inconsistent with the state's notion of instant death,'' McClain said. Prison officials have testified that the initial 2,300 volts the chair delivers makes for a quick and painless death.
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Copyright 1999 Miami Herald |