Title : Florida executes Mark Asay
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Florida executes Mark Asay
A white supremacist convicted of two racially motivated murders three decades ago in Florida has been executed by lethal injection.
Mark Asay is the first white man in state history to be executed for killing a black victim, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The 53-year-old had been found guilty of two 1987 murders in Jacksonville. The execution took place at 22:22 GMT.
It was the first time a new drug cocktail was used.
A jury found that Asay shot his victims - Robert Lee Booker, a black man, and Robert McDowell, 26, a white-Hispanic man - on the same night after making racist comments.
Prosecutors said that Asay hired McDowell, who was dressed as a woman, for sex, and shot him after discovering his gender.
Since the state reinstated death sentences in 1976, 20 black men have been executed for killing white victims, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
He was executed with etomidate, an anaesthetic never before used for a US execution, which will replace midazolam, which has proved difficult to obtain for US correctional institutions.
Two other drugs - rocuronium bromide and potassium acetate - will be included.
But one dissenting judge said the allowance of an unproven cocktail "jeopardised Asay's fundamental constitutional rights and treated him as the proverbial guinea pig".
In an interview with a local television station, Asay had said he did not want to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The inmate - who had white supremacist tattoos - admitted killing Mr McDowell, but denied the other murder.
"Because I pray, and I say, 'I've had all of the prison I want.' So I want out of prison, through the front door or the back," he told News4Jax.
The US has seen several sloppily handled executions in recent years, with lawyers arguing the drugs failed to properly prevent pain during the process.
Not only was this the first execution in Florida in more than 18 months, but it was also the first since the US Supreme Court found the state's method of sentencing to be unconstitutional.
The high court ruled that judges held too much sway over the decision to hand down the death penalty.
Since then, the state legislature has changed the rules so that a jury must reach a unanimous verdict in order for a death sentence to be recommended to the court.
But the new law does not affect older cases, such as Asay's.
Source: BBC News, August 25, 2017
Florida executes convicted killer Mark Asay
Florida on Thursday put a man to death with an anesthetic never used before in a U.S. lethal injection, carrying out its first execution in more than 18 months on an inmate convicted of two racially motivated murders.
Authorities said 53-year-old Mark Asay was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. Thursday at the state prison in Starke. Asay received a three-drug injection that began with the anesthetic, etomidate.
Though approved by the Florida Supreme Court, etomidate has been criticized by some as being unproven in an execution. Etomidate replaced midazolam, which became harder to acquire after many drug companies began refusing to provide it for executions.
Prosecutors say Asay made racist comments in the 1987 fatal shooting of a 34-year-old black man, Robert Lee Booker. Asay also was convicted of the 1987 murder of 26-year-old Robert McDowell, who was mixed race, white and Hispanic.
Asay was asked whether he wanted to make a final statement. "No sir, I do not. Thank you," he replied.
The execution protocol began at 6:10 p.m. About a minute after the first drug was administered, Asay's feet jerked slightly and his mouth opened. A minute or two later he was motionless and subsequently was pronounced dead by a doctor.
The execution was Florida's first since the U.S. Supreme Court halted the practice in the state after finding its method for sentencing people to death to be unconstitutional. The high court earlier Thursday had rejected Asay's final appeal without comment.
Asay was the first white man to be executed in Florida for killing a black man. At least 20 black men have been executed for killing white victims since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. A total of 92 Florida inmates had been executed previously in that time period.
Etomidate is the first of three drugs administered in Florida's new execution mixture. It is replacing midazolam, which has been harder to acquire after many drug companies began refusing to provide it for executions.
The etomidate is followed by rocuronium bromide, a paralytic, and finally, potassium acetate, which stops the heart. It is Florida's first time using potassium acetate too, which was used in a 2015 execution in Oklahoma by mistake, but has not been used elsewhere, a death penalty expert said.
While the state's high court has approved the use of etomidate, some experts have criticized the drug as being unproven.
State corrections officials have defended the choice, saying it has been reviewed. The corrections department refused to answer questions from The Associated Press about how it chose etomidate.
Doctors hired by Asay's attorneys raised questions about etomidate in court declarations, saying there are cases where it had caused pain along with involuntary writhing in patients.
But in its opinion allowing the drug to be used, the state's high court said earlier this month that four expert witnesses demonstrated that Asay "is at small risk of mild to moderate pain."
Executions in Florida were put on hold for 18 months after the Supreme Court ruled that the old system was unconstitutional because it gave judges, not juries, the power to decide.
Since then, Florida's Legislature passed a law requiring a unanimous jury for death penalty recommendations.
In Asay's case, jurors recommended death for both murder counts by a 9-3 vote. Even though the new law requires unanimity, Florida's high court ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling did not apply to older cases.
Asay was the 24th inmate executed since Gov. Rick Scott has taken office, the most under any governor in Florida history.
Source: Sun Sentinel, Associated Press, Jason Dearon, August 24, 2017
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