Schwab v. Secretary, Dept. of Corrections, 07-15329.
Decision Date | 15 November 2007 |
Docket Number | No. 07-15329.,07-15329. |
Parties | Mark Dean SCHWAB, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Other Unknown Employees and Agents, Florida Department of Corrections, Defendants-Appellants. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Kenneth Sloan Nunnelley, Dept. of Legal Affairs, Daytona Beach, FL, for Defendants-Appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before DUBINA, CARNES and HULL, Circuit Judges.
We have before us a motion filed by the State of Florida, through the Secretary of its Department of Corrections, asking that we vacate a stay of execution the district court entered early yesterday afternoon on behalf of Mark Dean Schwab. That court entered the stay in response to Schwab's emergency motion for one in connection with his last-minute filing of a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuit challenging the manner in which the state's lethal injection procedures are designed and carried out.1 The district court made it clear that the Supreme Court's grant of certiorari in Baze v. Rees, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 34, ___ L.Ed.2d ___, amended, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 372, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2007), was the only reason it entered the stay. Schwab v. McDonough, No. 6:07cv1798, at 5, 2007 WL 3357881 (M.D.Fla. Nov. 14, 2007) ().
The district court's action in granting the stay is contrary to the unequivocal law of this circuit that because grants of certiorari do not themselves change the law, they must not be used by courts of this circuit as a basis for granting a stay of execution that would otherwise be denied. Rutherford v. Crosby, 438 F.3d 1087, 1093 (11th Cir.) () , stay granted, 546 U.S. 1159, 126 S.Ct. 1191, 163 L.Ed.2d 1144, opinion vacated sub nom., Rutherford v. McDonough, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2915, 165 L.Ed.2d 914, reinstated in part, 466 F.3d 970 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 465, 166 L.Ed.2d 331 (2006); Robinson v. Crosby, 358 F.3d 1281, 1284 (11th Cir.) (, )abrogated on other grounds by Hill v. McDonough, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2096, 165 L.Ed.2d 44 (2006); Thomas v. Wainwright, 788 F.2d 684, 689 (11th Cir.1986) ( ); see also Ritter v. Thigpen, 828 F.2d 662, 665-66 (11th Cir.1987) (); Bowden, 774 F.2d at 1495 ( ).2
The district court's belief that "the fact that the Supreme Court has elected to grant review in [the Baze] case suggests that [Schwab] faces the prospect of a significant possibility of success on the merits of his claims," Schwab, No. 6:07cv1798, at 6, is simply wrong. The grant of certiorari on an issue does not suggest a view on the merits. We don't know how the Supreme Court is going to decide the issues on which it has granted review in the Baze case, and the Supreme Court itself probably does not know given the fact that briefing has not even been completed in that case.
Even if we were permitted to sweep aside binding circuit law based on our speculation about what the Supreme Court may decide in another case and our conjecture about how that decision might affect the case in front of us, we have no reason to believe that the Baze decision will enhance Schwab's prospects for relief in this case. In his state court proceeding raising the same issues as he raises here, Schwab relied entirely on the evidence introduced in the related Lightbourne v. McCollum, ___ So.2d ___, 2007 WL 3196533 (Fla. Nov. 1, 2007), case. Schwab v. State, ___ So.2d ___, 2007 WL 3196523, at *2 (Fla. Nov.1, 2007) ( ); id. at *4 ( ). Schwab has not suggested in this § 1983 proceeding that he has any additional evidence, and he has not requested an evidentiary hearing. The merits of his Eighth Amendment claim rises or falls on the basis of the evidence submitted in the Lightbourne case.
The first issue the Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide in the Baze case is whether the proper standard for judging this type of Eighth Amendment claim was substantial risk of wanton infliction of pain, as the Kentucky Supreme Court held, or unnecessary risk of pain, which is the standard Baze is urging. Baze, 128 S.Ct. at 372; Petition for Writ of Certiorari at ii, Baze v. Rees, No. 07-5439 2007 WL 2781088 (U.S. Jul. 11, 2007). After carefully considering the evidence on which Schwab bases his claim—the Lightbourne evidence—the Florida Supreme Court held that regardless of which standard the Supreme Court chooses in the Baze case, the result will be the same insofar as the Florida procedures, protocols, and drugs are concerned. Lightbourne, ___ So.2d at ___, 2007 WL 3196533, at *23. The evidence that Lightbourne and Schwab rely on does not show that those procedures, protocols, and drugs pose an unnecessary risk of pain. Id.
The second issue the Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide in the Baze case is whether a means for carrying out an execution violates the Eighth Amendment if there are readily available alternatives that pose less risk of pain and suffering. Baze, 128 S.Ct. at 372; Petition for Writ of Certiorari at ii, Baze, No. 07-5439. The third issue is whether the continued use of the three drugs—sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride—individually or together, violate the Eighth Amendment. Baze, 128 S.Ct. at 372; Petition for Writ of Certiorari at iii, Baze, No. 07-5439. It appears that the decision of those issues also will not affect the merits of Schwab's claim in view of the evidence that he relies on. See Schwab, 2007 WL 3196523, at *4, ___ So.2d at ___ () ; accord Lightbourne, 2007 WL 3196533, at *23, ___ So.2d at ___ () (footnote omitted).
There is another reason that the decision in Baze is unlikely to increase Schwab's likelihood for success. Florida's statute providing lethal injection as an alternative to electrocution was enacted more than seven and a half years ago. Schwab's petition for a federal writ of habeas corpus was denied two years ago, and we affirmed that denial seventeen months ago. Four months ago the Governor signed a warrant setting Schwab's execution date for November 15, 2007. Yet Schwab did not file his § 1983 petition challenging Florida's lethal injection procedures until 4:58 p.m. on November 13, 2007, just two days before his scheduled execution.
As the district court noted: Schwab, No. 6:07cv1798, at 6. That observation understates the law...
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