Florida will be the 1st state to try a new drug as part of its lethal injection cocktail.
On October 15, William Happ will be the 1st man to be executed using Midazolam Hydrochloride as part of the lethal injection cocktail.
Happ raped and strangled a woman in Citrus County 27 years ago.
Mark Elliott is the Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
"The problem is we just don't know if it causes pain or not. The only person that knows is the one being killed," said Elliott.
Midazolam is the 1st in the 3 drug lethal injection.
Elliott is concerned that it might wear off before the injections are complete.
"With the 3 drug cocktail, the risk is that the 1st drug is going to wear off and no one will know except for the person being killed. The 2nd drug is a paralytic drug. The person can't cry, they can't breathe, they can't react in any way. So, if the 1st drug wears off, the 2nd drug paralyzes them and then the 3rd drug is a salt drug - potassium chloride that essentially burns all of their internal organs," said Elliott.
Florida had been using Pentobarbital since 2011. The drug is currently used by 13 other states.
Elliott believes that since Midazolam has never been used to kill people and medical professionals are not present for executions; Florida is taking a huge risk.
"This is not a medical procedure. This is not something that's scientifically proven. So, you know, these are people that don't really understand what they're doing. It has the image of a medical procedure but it's not. It's killing people. There's no clinical studies," said Elliott.
In a letter to the Governor explaining Florida's new lethal injection procedures, Florida Department of Corrections Secretary, Michael Crews, wrote that the procedure has been reviewed and will not involve any pain or suffering.
On October 15, William Happ will be the 1st person in the country to find out.
Happ will be the 79 person executed in the state of Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Source: Baynews9, October 8, 2013
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