Florida ends seven-month moratorium on executions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., July 18 (Reuters) Florida ended today a moratorium on capital punishment spurred by a gruesomely slow execution at the end of last year, as Gov. Charlie Crist signed his first death warrant.

With a review of the state's lethal injection procedure completed after the botched December 2006 execution of Angel Diaz, Crist said changes made to the lethal injection protocol were sufficient to ensure painless executions.

''By issuing this death warrant today, Florida ends a seven-month moratorium,'' Crist said in a statement.

''I am confident that the training, organisation and communication processes established by the Commission on Administration of Lethal Injection and adopted by the State of Florida Department of Corrections are consistent with the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,'' Crist said.

Named in Wednesday's warrant was Mark Dean Schwab, sentenced to death for the kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez Jr. in April 1991.

The warrant is the first signed since former Gov. Jeb Bush, like Crist a Republican, halted executions in December 2006 following the execution of Diaz, who took 34 minutes to die.

While executioners said Diaz suffered no pain, witnesses reported that he grimaced, gasped for breath and contorted as he lay strapped to a gurney for a procedure that normally takes only a few minutes.

An autopsy showed that a pair of intravenous tubes used in the process was improperly placed, administering the lethal drugs slowly into muscle tissue instead of quickly into veins.

In May, the state's top prison official announced the adoption of 37 recommendations that included additional training and oversight. Prison officials also expanded the execution chamber to make it easier for executioners to carry out their duties.

The Diaz case underscored a long-standing debate in the United States over how to enforce the death penalty. Opponents have argued that lethal injection, which is used in 37 US states, is cruel and unusual punishment barred by the US Constitution.

The Florida Supreme Court today said it would hear arguments over the state's lethal injection procedure on Oct 11, in a case filed on behalf of a number of death row inmates following Diaz's death.

Florida executed prisoners by the electric chair for 76 years, but state lawmakers approved lethal injections in January 2000 after a series of troubled executions, including one in 1997 when flames shot from the head of the condemned prisoner.

Reuters MP VP0220