cruel and unusual punishment. Florida is one of just four states across the country that requires condemned killers to be executed by electrocution. Most of the 38 states with capital punishment have switched to lethal injection in the last 50 years, when a peak of 26 states used electric chairs. But the U.S. Supreme Court has not reviewed electrocution as a method of execution since 1890, when New York became the first state to approve its use. Now the issue is one that is in conflict among states. The last man to die in Florida's electric chair was Allen Lee Davis also known as “Tiny.” His execution in July for the 1982 murders of a pregnant woman and her two young daughters led to the legal challenge before the high court. He suffered a nosebleed just before the current of electrocution was applied. This caused blood to drip from his face mask and onto his chest as he died. Davis may also have been partially suffocated before he was electrocuted because of the placement of a leather mouthpiece across his face. This does not seem to be a normal way to punish a criminal, and thus becomes an argument for debate and discussion. The bloody execution followed problems in 1990 and 1997, when flames erupted from the headpiece worn by condemned Florida killers. This is not only wrong but should not be continued to go on. Pictures of Davis' bloody body and contorted face are before the nation's high after Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw attached three photographs to his blistering dissent of the state court's 4-3 ruling upholding use of the chair last month. The decision came less than an hour after the state Supreme Court granted Anthony Bryan a two-day stay to pursue federal appeals. Bryan was scheduled to go to the electric chair at 7 a.m. recently for the 1983 murder of a watchman abducted in Mississippi. Bryan's lawyer, Andrew Thomas, called the decision "monumental." Gov. Jeb Bush was surprised and disappoin...
