Lightbourne v. McCollum
| Decision Date | 01 November 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. SC06-2391.,SC06-2391. |
| Citation | 969 So.2d 326 |
| Parties | Ian Deco LIGHTBOURNE, Petitioner, v. Bill McCOLLUM, etc., et al., Respondents. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Neal A. Dupree, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Suzanne Myers Keffer, Roseanne Eckert, Assistant CCRC and Anna-Liisa Nixon, CCRC Staff Attorney, Southern Region, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Petitioner.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, Carolyn M. Snurkowski, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, Florida, for Respondent.
This case is before the Court on the all writs petition of Ian Deco Lightbourne, challenging Florida's lethal injection procedures after complications occurred in the administration of chemicals during the execution of Angel Diaz on December 13, 2006.1 The main issue in this case is whether Florida's current lethal injection procedures violate the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.2
On December 13, 2006, Angel Diaz was executed by lethal injection, but his execution "took 34 minutes, which was substantially longer than in any previous lethal injection in Florida."3 The day after Diaz's execution, Lightbourne and other death row inmates filed the instant emergency all writs petition, requesting that this Court: (1) address whether Florida's lethal injection procedures violate the Eighth Amendment; (2) enjoin Diaz's autopsy and order that the autopsy be conducted by an independent medical examiner or with petitioners' independent expert present; (3) order the production of all records previously requested by Lightbourne; and (4) appoint a special master to hear and receive evidence regarding the pain suffered during lethal injection.
On December 14, 2006, this Court entered an order allowing Lightbourne to designate a representative to attend the Diaz autopsy and relinquishing jurisdiction to the circuit court for an immediate determination of Lightbourne's request for an independent autopsy and "all other issues raised" by Lightbourne. By our order of December 14, 2006, we essentially ruled on two of Lightbourne's requests in his petition, first by addressing the issue of the autopsy and then by relinquishing to the trial court to decide the issues that required factual development. On February 9, 2007, the Court dismissed without prejudice all petitioners' claims in Case No. SC06-2391 other than Lightbourne's.
At the time that the emergency all writs petition was filed in this case, Lightbourne had another appeal pending before this Court which challenged the constitutionality of the lethal injection statute and procedures and raised a public records issue. See Lightbourne v. State, 956 So.2d 456 (Fla.2007) (SC06-1241) (). In affirming the denial, this Court stated by order:
[A]s a result of Angel Diaz's execution by lethal injection, a series of events occurred that the trial court could not have considered in denying Lightbourne's motion. The impact of those events on the issue of the constitutionality of Florida's lethal injection procedures is currently being litigated in Lightbourne v. McCollum, SC06-2391. Accordingly, we conclude that the better course is to allow that case to proceed, in which Lightbourne has reasserted his public records request and in which an evidentiary hearing will be held in May 2007.
Lightbourne v. State, No. SC06-1241, 956 So.2d 456 (Fla. Apr. 16, 2007) (unpublished order).
At the same time that Lightbourne has been pursuing relief in this Court, the executive branch has also responded to the Diaz execution, working expeditiously on a parallel track with the goal of addressing issues regarding Florida's lethal injection procedures. We briefly detail the executive branch's efforts because its response to the Diaz execution and the revisions to the protocol affect our ultimate determination of the constitutionality of the current lethal injection procedures.
Shortly after the Diaz execution, on December 15, 2006, then-Governor Bush stayed all executions and issued an executive order creating a Governor's Commission on Administration of Lethal Injection to "review the method in which the lethal injection procedures are administered by the Department of Corrections and to make findings and recommendations as to how administration of the procedures and protocols can be revised." The Commission held hearings over four days and submitted a final report to the Governor on March 1, 2007. After noting that Diaz's execution "called into question the adequacy of the lethal injection protocols," the Commission found that during the execution of Angel Diaz, the Department of Corrections ("DOC") and the execution team failed to follow its protocols, failed to ensure successful intravenous ("IV") access, failed to provide adequate training, and failed to have guidelines in place for handling complications. Governor's Commission Report at 2, 8-9. Based on conflicting expert medical opinions and witnesses' observations of the inmate, the Commission was unable to reach a conclusion as to whether inmate Angel Diaz was in pain during the execution. Even though the Commission found these numerous failures during the Diaz execution, it opined that an agency following procedures framed in its recommendations could carry out an execution in a constitutional manner using the current three-chemical combination. The Commission provided detailed recommendations regarding how the DOC should modify its protocols and practices.
DOC Secretary James McDonough also responded to the Diaz execution by creating an initial task force to collect information as to what occurred during the Diaz execution. Subsequent to the Governor's Commission's report, Secretary McDonough established another task force to recommend modifications to the existing lethal injection protocols in accord with the findings and recommendations previously made, including planned renovations to the execution facility. As a result of the findings of the DOC task force and the findings and recommendations of the Governor's Commission, the DOC revised its lethal injection procedures, effective May 9, 2007.
Although this Court relinquished jurisdiction in the Lightbourne proceedings in December 2006, the trial court appropriately waited until after the Governor's Commission studied the matter and issued its report before it held evidentiary hearings on the claims raised. The evidentiary hearings lasted thirteen days, and approximately forty witnesses testified, resulting in a record exceeding 6,500 pages. The testimony and evidence focused on three main topics: (1) whether Diaz suffered pain during his execution; (2) what deficiencies existed in the lethal injection procedures and how those alleged deficiencies contributed to the complications; and (3) whether the risk of pain in future executions had been sufficiently minimized by changes made to the protocol as a result of the Diaz execution.
On July 22, 2007, the trial court verbally issued a temporary stay of any death warrant for Lightbourne and ordered the State to revise its lethal injection procedures in accord with the DOC's testimony about anticipated revisions to the protocol and the trial court's comments. The trial court expressed its concerns regarding the qualifications, training, licensure, and credentials for members of the execution team. The trial court commented on the need for training for contingencies, as well as the need for creating checklists, providing for periodic review of DOC procedures, providing for certification of readiness by the DOC to carry out an execution according to the protocol, and providing clear directions that any observed problems or deviations from the protocols should be immediately brought to the attention of the warden.
The DOC again revised its lethal injection procedures in response to the trial court's comments and in line with its anticipated revisions, submitting its revised procedures (the "August 2007 procedures") which provided more detail as to the qualifications of the execution team members, more clarification that the warden is to ensure that the team members are properly trained, and procedures that require the team members to report any problems or concerns to the warden. After this revision, the parties were allowed to present additional evidence to the trial court.
On September 10, 2007, the trial court entered a final order, which denied the relief sought by Lightbourne, lifted the temporary stay of execution, and found that the August 2007 lethal injection procedures were not unconstitutional. The trial court found that the DOC addressed the irregularities that occurred in the Diaz execution and had taken appropriate action in the revised protocol to reduce the risk of similar irregularities happening in the future. The trial court found that when properly injected, the three-drug protocol used by the State will produce a sequence of unconsciousness, cessation of all muscular function, and cessation of heart function, resulting in death. The trial court also found that Diaz's execution took longer than expected because the drugs were injected subcutaneously, rather than delivered intravenously as intended, because the needles penetrated through the veins in both arms. The trial court concluded that the lethal injection procedures now in place in Florida do not violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Lightbourne appeals to this Court raising three issues: (1) whether he was denied a full and fair hearing in violation of his constitutional right to due process; (2) whether the lower court erred in refusing to consider certain memoranda on the grounds that they fall under the definition of attorney work-product and are...
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