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Allen Lee DAVIS
A.K.A.: "Tiny"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery
Number of victims: 3
Date of murder:
May 11,
1982
Date of birth: July
20,
1944
Victims profile: Nancy Weiler,
who was pregnant, and her two young
daughters
Method of murder:
Beating with handgun
/ Shooting
Location: Duval County, Florida, USA
Status:
Executed by
electrocution in
Florida on July 8,
1999
Allen Lee Davis was
convicted of killing a pregnant Jacksonville woman and her two young
daughters on May 11, 1982.
Davis was convicted of murdering Nancy Weiler, a Westinghouse
executive's wife in Jacksonville who was three months pregnant when
she was killed in 1982.
Mrs. Weiler was "beaten almost beyond
recognition," with a .357, hit over 25 times in the face and head.
Her 9-year-old daughter Kristina was tied up and shot twice in the
face, and her 5-year-old daughter Katherine was shot as she was
trying to run away and then her skull was beaten in with the gun.
The Davis execution drew attention after he had a nose bleed in the
elctric chair, and a Florida Supreme Court justice published as part
of his dissent in another case Department of Corrections photos of
Davis immediately following the execution with a shirt covered in
blood.
Davis was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the murders.
His weight of 350 pounds may have contributed to the execution
problems.
Man Who Killed 3 Put to Death
By Beau Halton -
Florida Times-Union
Friday, July 9, 1999
STARKE - While witnessing the execution of Allen
Lee ''Tiny'' Davis yesterday, John Weiler wasn't distracted by Davis'
bleeding or his muffled screams. Instead, the husband and father of
Davis' three murder victims said he was steadfastly focused on the
fact that his 17 years of waiting for Davis' death were finally
ending.
Davis, 54, was condemned for the May 11, 1982,
slayings of Nancy Weiler, who was three months' pregnant, and two
daughters in their home on San Pablo Road in Jacksonville. During
yesterday's execution, a small dot of blood grew to a large splotch
on the front of Davis' white dress shirt. Prison physicians and an
autopsy report concluded the blood came from a nosebleed.
Regardless, Weiler said, at last the execution
was occurring. He was hoping during those hushed, anxious moments in
the Florida State Prison death chamber that ''all Florida residents
understand the importance of this.'' ''This was a necessary thing
that had to be done, and everyone has to understand why,'' Weiler
said. ''I've had to wait 17 years for some type of closure to this.
No one else should have to do that. Any more than one year to [carry
out] a sentence is ridiculous.''
The autopsy report by a Gainesville medical
examiner does not mention any injuries - only blood in Davis' left
nostril - that would have caused the bleeding. But because of the
bleeding and other issues, the Florida Supreme Court last night
postponed today's scheduled execution of Thomas Provenzano,
convicted of killing one Orange County Courthouse bailiff and
wounding two others in 1984.
That execution is postponed until Sept.
14. In appeals that led to the postponement, lawyers for Death Row
inmates also said not enough electricity was applied yesterday to
make Davis' death painless.
The electric chair is supposed to automatically
apply 2,300 volts for eight seconds, followed by 1,000 volts for 22
seconds, then 2,300 volts for another eight seconds. But a chart on
the voltage in Davis' execution showed 1,500 volts for eight seconds,
600 volts for 22 seconds and 1,500 volts for 4.5 seconds.
The
inmates' lawyers argued that the voltage in the electric chair
during four executions last year wasn't enough to kill painlessly,
especially for a man Davis' size. Davis weighed 344 pounds,
officials said yesterday.
Yesterday's was the first execution in Florida's
new electric chair, which replaced ''Old Sparky,'' the rickety oak
chair used since 1924. Weiler, 55, sat in the center of the front
row in the witness room. He said that, before a hood was draped over
Davis' head, he made eye contact with the killer of his wife and two
young daughters. ''He didn't show an ounce of remorse,'' Weiler said.
''He knew who I was. He didn't care. Not a bit.''
Davis, who had
arthritis and other physical conditions, was brought to the chamber
in a wheelchair shortly after 7 a.m. His shaven head and right lower
leg were coated with conductive gel. He glanced intermittently at
the two dozen witnesses, the ceiling and the floor. Corrections
officers hoisted him into the electric chair and secured him with
thick leather straps around his legs, arms, waist, chest and head.
He shook his head when asked if he had a last statement.
He roared unintelligibly, twice, after a strap
was wrapped tightly across his mouth and his head was covered with a
skullcap and hood. After the electrocution lever was pulled at 7:10
a.m., Davis' back straightened, his hands clenched and his chest
seemed to expand. His body came to rest and blood appeared on the
front of his shirt. Initially, a red dot appeared in the center of
his chest.
The stain slowly grew to a splotch about 8 inches across.
His chest heaved repeatedly; he appeared to still be alive. But he
was pronounced dead at 7:15.
Cory Tilley, spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush,
said: ''We are absolutely, 100 percent comfortable that the chair
performed flawlessly as it was designed to perform... Everybody's
getting all worked up about a nosebleed.''
But opponents of the death penalty insisted the
chair doesn't work. D. Michael McCarron, executive director of the
Florida Catholic Conference, which represents Florida's bishops,
said, ''If there is any doubt whatsoever about the proper
functioning of that chair, tomorrow's scheduled execution of Thomas
Provenzano should not go forward... They ought to stop.'' Provenzano
opened fire in 1984 at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando. He
had been scheduled to die Wednesday, but was given a 48-hour stay
Tuesday night. His execution had been reset for 7:01 a.m. today, but
has been postponed.
The American Civil Liberties Union called on Bush
to halt all executions until the state can assure they are conducted
humanely. ''Criminals no doubt deserve to be punished, and the
severity of the punishment should be appropriate to their
culpability,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of ACLU of
Florida. ''But Florida's record of executions, and the Legislature's
obsession with electrocution as the method of execution, has been
barbaric,'' Simon said.
But Weiler said his family's murders were
barbaric. He recalled that Davis admitted that a prime motive that
day was ''to rape and kill my daughter Kristina, 9, then to murder
my wife and younger daughter [Katherine, 5]. A secondary motive was
to rob my residence.'' ''I relate these details to you, the citizens
of Florida, so there is no question of the cruel and terrible deaths
that Allen Lee Davis inflicted on his victims,'' Weiler said in a
news conference after the execution.
Recalling that Davis had
committed crimes before killing his family, Weiler said, ''Davis was
a deviant animal that should have been permanently caged or executed
many years before May 1982... The execution today was a legal, moral
and righteous one, and I can assure you God approves.'' (Times-Union
staff writers Bruce Bryant-Friedland and Jim Saunders contributed to
this report. )
ProDeathPenalty.com
Allen Lee Davis was convicted of killing a
pregnant Jacksonville woman and her two young daughters on May 11 in
1982. Davis, 54, was convicted of murdering Nancy Weiler, a
Westinghouse executive's wife in Jacksonville who was three months
pregnant when she was killed in 1982.
Mrs. Weiler was "beaten almost
beyond recognition," with a .357, hit over 25 times in the face and
head. Her 9-year-old daughter Kristina was tied up and shot twice in
the face, and her 5-year-old daughter Katherine was shot as she was
trying to run away and then her skull was beaten in with the gun.
The murders occurred the day before Kristina's
10th birthday. The Weilers were neighbors of Davis's parents and
after the murders, Davis stole a camera and some jewelry. The Weiler
family was about to move and Nancy's husband John had gone ahead to
Pennsylvania to await his family. Two other death warrants have been
issued in the case in last 13 years. 37 at the time of the murders,
Davis had a string of felony convictions to his credit and was on
parole for armed robbery at the time.
Real Victims of Cruel Punishment
By Bob Greene -
Chicago Tribune
Wednesday, July 14, 1999
Some people were horrified by what happened to
Allen Lee Davis last week. Davis, 54, was put to death in Florida’s
electric chair. During his execution, a spot of blood unexpectedly
appeared on his shirt; by the time the execution was finished, the
blood spot had grown to approximately 8 inches across. Prison
officials later said that the blood came from a simple nosebleed,
and that the blood dripped onto Davis’ shirt. But some witnesses
said the blood seemed to come from Davis’ chest area.
All of this was used by some as evidence that
putting prisoners to death - specifically by using the electric
chair - is an appalling and cruel thing to do. The lawyer for
another Florida man on Death Row said, “The degrading and mutilating
manner in which (Davis) died was a clear violation of the Eighth
Amendment. Blood gushing from the face and chest of a dying inmate
is repugnant to the conscience of mankind.” Civil liberties attorney
Howard Simon said that the method used to execute Davis was “barbaric.”
Perhaps. But before we go too far down the path
of mourning the way in which Allen Lee Davis died, maybe, just for a
few moments, it is worth reporting something that has not been
commented upon much: what Davis did to get to Death Row in the first
place. On May 11, 1982, Davis - an ex-convict - entered the
Jacksonville, Fla., home of the John Weiler family. Weiler, an
executive with the Westinghouse Corp., was on a business trip in
Pittsburgh.
In the Weiler home, Allen Lee Davis attacked
Nancy Weiler, 37, who at the time was three months pregnant with the
family’s third child. Davis bludgeoned Mrs. Weiler - who was the
corresponding secretary of the PTA at her children’s school - so
severely that she was barely recognizable when police found her body.
Davis brutalized Mrs. Weiler with such force that the trigger guard
on the gun with which he was beating her broke, as did the wooden
grips and metal frame of its handle.
Davis tied up the Weiler’s 10-year-old daughter,
Kristy - a fifth-grade student who hoped to become a nuclear
engineer someday - and shot her in the face, killing her. The
Weilers’ other child - 5-year-old Kathy - tried to run from Davis.
He shot her in the back and then beat her, crushing her skull. There
was quite a bit of blood in the Weiler home after Davis had killed
the mother and her two children. Considerably more blood than
inadvertently appeared on Davis’ shirt during the execution.
When prisoners are wrongly sent to Death Row,
there is justifiable outrage that the court system could condemn
innocent people to death. This is as it should be. But there was no
question about Allen Lee Davis. He murdered Mrs. Weiler and her two
little girls. No one disputes that. And for 16 full years the state
of Florida housed him, took care of his physical needs, fed him all
the food he desired (he ballooned up to 344 pounds in prison; one of
his attorneys based an appeal on the theory that Davis should not be
executed because his obesity might complicate the electrocution and
cause him pain, which the attorney said would be cruel and unusual
punishment. The attorney did not characterize the extent of the
cruelty in the deaths of the Weiler family.)
As his last meal before his execution, Davis
received from the state of Florida the dinner he had requested: a
lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six
ounces of fried clam strips, half a loaf of garlic bread and 32
ounces of A&W root beer. In 1982, Davis did not give Mrs. Weiler and
her two children a choice of a last meal before he killed them.
But now the focus is on the blood spot on Davis’
chest and whether that indicates we are an immoral and vicious
society for doing such a thing to him. John Weiler - whose wife and
daughters have been dead for 17 years - apparently doesn’t think so.
At one point as he waited for Davis to at last receive the
punishment the courts had ordered for him, Weiler said: “It is cruel
and unusual punishment of the victims, living and dead, to know that
this animal still breathes.”
And now Allen Lee Davis is dead. Evidently his
death was a somewhat unpleasant experience for him. There are a lot
of things in this world for the public to worry about. Davis’
discomfort is not necessarily one of them.
Florida Execution of 350-pound Inmate Turns
Bloody
By Lesley Clark -
Miami Herald
July 8, 1999
Blood poured from the chest and mouth of
convicted killer Allen Lee Davis as he was electrocuted early
Thursday in Florida's first use of its new electric chair. Davis let
out two muffled screams from behind a chin mask after four guards
strapped him into the electric chair. As the 2,300 volts of
electricity began to surge through the metal cap on his head, Davis
jerked back against the oak chair, his fists clenched.
A tiny trickle of blood began to stain his white
long-sleeved dress shirt as witnesses watching the execution behind
glass gasped in horror. Corrections officers in the death chamber
looked at each other in alarm, their eyes wide. None of them moved,
but watched as the blood thickened.
The blood continued to seep,
leaking through the buckle holes in the thick leather restraints. It
created a stain 6 to 8 inches in diameter across Davis' chest, from
below his breastbone to nearly the top of his dark blue dress pants
and black belt. A small spot of blood was visible under his right
collar and when doctors lifted up the death mask to check his
eyelids, his mouth appeared to be bleeding.
The black-hooded executioner flipped the switch
at 7:05 and power was shut off at 7:07, corrections officials said.
Davis' chest convulsed at least twice before two prison medical
officials declared him dead at 7:15 a.m.
Davis, 54, who had to be
wheeled into the death chamber because he has trouble walking, was
sentenced to die for the 1982 beating and shooting deaths of Nancy
Weiler and her two young daughters during an attempted burglary at
Weiler's Jacksonville home. Davis, at 350 pounds, was one of several
large inmates whom prison officials considered last year when they
replaced Florida's infamous 76-year-old electric chair known as "Ol'
Sparky'' with a near-replica that has been tested to withstand
heftier inmates.
Although Ol' Sparky withstood legal challenges
and served as the method of death for famous serial killers like Ted
Bundy, prison officials said the prisoner-built relic was showing
its age. The oak seat was cracked, and one of its arms was ready to
snap off. In a bid to stay his execution, Davis argued that prison
officials failed to update the chair's electrical apparatus and that
electrocution in the chair would be long and painful, in violation
of the state and U.S. constitutions.
Florida is one of just four states to rely solely
on the electric chair as a means of execution. Several state Supreme
Court justices have called on lawmakers to consider using lethal
injection, calling the electric chair "a spectacle whose time has
passed.''
The Supreme Court twice rejected Davis' arguments
but is requiring the Department of Corrections to certify before
each electrocution that the chair is working properly. Since 1990,
fire and smoke have twice erupted during executions, and guidelines
were developed to prevent such events.
Davis argued in his latest
appeal that the state was not following its own rules because it
failed to replace worn, faulty or damaged electrical equipment.
Davis also argued that death in the chair could come slower for him
because his fat tissue would be more resistant to the electrical
current than that of an average-size man.
Bloody death in the chair
Controversy erupts over
execution
By Lesley Clark -
Miami Herald
July 9, 1999
STARKE -- Triple-murderer Allen Lee "Tiny'' Davis
met a bloody death during his electrocution at sunup Thursday in
Florida's new electric chair, an end grisly enough that the State
Supreme Court later delayed another execution scheduled for today.
The appearance of blood for the first time in
recent history in Florida's death chamber sparked a flurry of
questions about the method the state uses to kill its condemned.
Thursday evening, the state's high court granted
defense attorneys for condemned killer Thomas Provenzano time to
prepare arguments that the electric chair malfunctioned and its use
for executions is unconstitutional. The court set a hearing for Aug.
24, and delayed the execution until Sept. 14.
State and prison officials said Thursday that the
chair worked properly, and that an autopsy showed that the blood,
which left a stain on Davis' shirt the size of a dinner plate, was
from a nosebleed. But defense attorneys for Provenzano said they had
evidence that the voltage used to electrocute Davis was lower than
it is supposed to be.
A scarlet stain on Davis' chalky white dress
shirt appeared just below his breastbone -- first as a single drop
of blood, then growing -- seconds after the black-hooded executioner
flipped the switch, sending 2,300 volts of electricity coursing
through Davis.
Witnesses to the early morning execution said the
blood appeared to have come from his chest underneath the long-sleeved
shirt, but Victor Selyutin, the prison doctor who pronounced Davis
dead 10 minutes after the execution, said in a prepared statement
that "the blood appeared to be the result of a typical nosebleed.''
Prison officials would not allow Selyutin to be interviewed.
An autopsy, which Davis had requested before his
death, found blood in both nostrils and on his upper lip but not on
his chest. Medical examiner William F. Hamilton of Gainesville did
find blood on Davis' shirt and a "burn ring'' around his shaven
skull and his calf from the chair's electrodes. Hamilton, who said
Davis died by electrocution, also noted small burn marks on Davis'
lower torso and upper thigh.
Was taking blood thinners
Selyutin noted that Davis was taking "heavy doses'' of what he
called two "well-known blood thinners'' -- aspirin and Motrin -- for
his arthritis. Davis also suffered from high blood pressure.
Prison officials said previous wardens have
witnessed nose bleeds in the death chair, but they didn't say which
wardens. Prison spokesman Gene Morris said he had not seen blood on
an inmate in 15 executions in eight years with the Department of
Corrections.
Davis died in front of four rows of observers
separated from the chair by a layer of glass. Among the witnesses
was John Weiler, the man whose wife and two small daughters Davis
bludgeoned and shot to death in 1982.
"The execution today was a legal, moral and
righteous one,'' Weiler said in tears. "I can assure you my God
approves.''
Arrived in wheelchair
Davis, who
had argued that death in the electric chair would be painful, in
part because he weighed 344 pounds, screamed twice just before the
electricity shot through the head piece.
He was rolled into the death chamber in a prison-issued
wheelchair, his enormous shaved head glistening with gel. He
returned the stares of witnesses, but showed no emotion.
Silently, four guards lifted him into the chair
and fastened him to the seat, buckling the thick leather straps
across his chest, waist and arms.
Sitting impassively, Davis watched the guards
remove the shackles and strap his ankles to the chair. His right
pant leg was rolled up, displaying a shaved calf. He shook his head
briefly and knotted his bushy eyebrows, giving the guards attaching
the electrodes to his right leg a quizzical stare.
At one point, he looked up to the ceiling and
sighed.
No last words
Prison warden
James Crosby asked if he had any last words. Davis shook his head.
The chin strap was placed over his mouth, a wide
leather band that covered the lower half of his face. His cheeks and
forehead reddened. Then the headpiece, with its lethal brass
electrode, was lowered onto his head, and a black mask dropped over
his eyes.
Behind the chair, a prison official talked softly
to Gov. Jeb Bush on one of three phones on the wall of the death
chamber. There was no last-minute stay.
As the official nodded toward the black-hooded
executioner -- who was paid $150 in cash for the task -- Davis'
chest began to rise and he let out two muffled screams. Behind a
blue curtain, the executioner threw the switch. Davis' massive body
jerked back against the oak chair, his fists clenched. The only
sound was the low hum of electricity as the chair delivered its
deadly charge in three pulsating signals.
Blood appears
Then, a
trickle of bright red blood appeared at the front of his white shirt
near the center of his chest.
Prison officials in the death chamber looked at
each other, their eyes widening as the blood stain enlarged. None of
them moved.
The blood continued to seep, dripping onto the
leather restraints and leaking through the holes for the buckle.
The executioner flipped the switch at 7:05 and
power was shut off at 7:07, corrections officials said. After the
power was shut off, Davis' chest convulsed and he shuddered at least
twice while prison medical officials took his pulse.
A second medical worker unbuttoned Davis'
bloodied shirt and, using a stethoscope, declared him dead at 7:15
a.m. By then the bleeding had stopped.
Seconds later came the official word.
"The sentence of the state of Florida vs. Allen
Lee Davis has been carried out at 7:15 a.m.,'' a prison official
intoned. "Please exit to the rear at this time.''
The witnesses filed out, the bloodied Davis still
harnessed in the electric chair. Outside, a white hearse was
waiting.
Took three lives
Davis' death
in the chair came 17 years after he was sentenced to death for the
savage bludgeoning and shooting deaths of Nancy Weiler and her two
daughters during an attempted burglary at Weiler's Jacksonville home.
That is where the sympathy should be directed,
the governor said in a terse statement released shortly after the
execution.
"As governor, there is no more solemn duty than
to sign a death warrant, and order the execution of an inmate on
Death Row,'' Bush said. "Today, my thoughts and the thoughts of all
Floridians go out to the family and friends of Nancy, Kristina and
Katherine Weiler, who have waited for justice far too long.
``It is my hope that the use of the death penalty
sends the strong signal that the people of Florida will not tolerate
the murder of innocent civilians,'' he said.
Prison officials said Davis read and slept, but
didn't talk much in the week up to the execution when he was put on
death watch, with a guard on duty 24 hours a day in front of his
cell. Gainesville attorney Susan Cary, who met with Davis hours
before his execution, said he was resigned to the fact he would die
in the chair.
Davis spent the night before the execution
talking with his attorneys and his brothers, Bruce and Richard
Davis, who live in Georgia. He also met with Florida State Prison
chaplain Donald Spence.
Still taking medicine
Davis was in good spirits and even joked with Cary when a guard
showed up at about 8 p.m. to give Davis his medication for high
blood pressure and arthritis.
"It was bizarre and we laughed about it,'' Cary
said. "I told him, `Look, they're concerned about your health.' He
laughed at the absurdity of it all.''
Davis rose before the sun was up and ate his last
meal shortly after 4 a.m. He downed a lobster tail, fried potatoes,
a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clam strips, half
a loaf of garlic bread and 32 ounces of A&W root beer. Prison
officials said he even polished off the condiments -- drawn butter
and a dollop of cocktail sauce.
At just after 7, he was wheeled into the death
chamber.
Allen Lee Davis (July 20,
1944 – July 8, 1999) was a convicted murderer
executed for the May 11, 1982 Jacksonville, Florida
murder of Nancy Weiler, who was three-months
pregnant at the time. According to reports, Nancy
Weiler, was "beaten almost beyond recognition" by
Davis with a .357 Magnum, and hit over 25 times in
the face and head.
He was also convicted of killing
Nancy Weiler's two daughters, Kristina (9, shot
twice in the face) and Katherine (5, shot as she was
trying to run away). Davis was on parole for armed
robbery at the time of the murders.
Controversy
Davis' execution drew nationwide
media attention after he had a nose bleed in the
electric chair and suffered burns to his head, leg,
and groin area during the course of his
electrocution. A Florida Supreme Court justice
published some photos of the aftermath of the
incident.
In 1999, the state of Florida
heard a petition from Thomas Harrison Provenzano,
another Death Row inmate, that argued that the
electric chair was a cruel and unusual punishment.
During the proceedings, many people testified about
Davis's death.
Ira E. Whitlock, licensed
electrical engineer, said that during the
execution of Allen Lee Davis, the readings
produced by Old Sparky's chart recorder
indicated that the circuitry operated as it was
designed and intended to operate. Others
corroborated this testimony.
During Davis's execution, the
recorder collected the following data:
Cycle
Voltage
Current
Impedance
1
1,500 V
10 A
150 Ω
2
600 V
4.5 A
133 Ω
3
1,500 V
10 A
150 Ω
John W.
Moser, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel for
the Middle Region, testified that between the
time Davis was strapped into the chair and the
time the electrical current was applied to
Davis, he heard what he described as two screams
from Davis. He also said that upon application
of the current, Davis's body tensed and arched
backward, and seconds later, blood appeared on
Davis's chest. Moser approximated that around
three minutes after Davis's body tensed, at a
point when Davis was no longer tensed, he saw
Davis's chest move in and out several times.
Mark
Lazarus, Victim Assistance Administrator for the
Florida Department of Corrections, testified
that after the head piece was placed on Davis'
head, he heard Davis make two one-syllable
sounds that he also described as a "yell[ing]
out." He corroborated Moser's observations of
Davis's body clenching and blood began dripping
onto Davis from behind the mask. Lazarus also
saw Davis's chest move, but described it as like
a muscle spasm.
Sheila
McAllister, Correctional Probation Officer at
Wakulla Correctional Institution, testified that,
though Davis's face was red before being
executed, it was redder in the photographs of
Davis taken after the execution had taken place.
She said, like Moser and Lazarus, that Davis
stiffened as the electrical current passed
through him, and added that his hands clenched.
She also heard Davis make noise, which she
described as moaning sounds. She corroborated
that Davis had blood on his chest that appeared
to be coming from behind the mask, and that
Davis's chest moved like muscle spasms. She
added that they occurred three or four times and
that they were spaced apart with two or three
seconds in between.
William
R. Dotson, Inspector Supervisor for the
Gainesville Field Office with the Department of
Corrections' Inspector General's Office,
testified that he and "Mr. Geibig" took some of
the pictures of Davis's body after the execution,
and that he had felt it necessary to document
the event.
Michael
R. Collins, a nurse for the Florida State Prison
testified that he heard Davis make one "loud
maybe two, three-second high-pitched murmur"
before the current was applied. He corroborated
the characterization of Davis's body as
stiffened or rigid when the current was applied,
and said that Davis's fingernails turned bright
red. After the current was stopped and Davis was
examined, Collins said that he saw blood on
Davis's shirt, on his chest and on the upper
right side by the collar, and blood dripping
from the mask for a short time during the
examination.
Steve
Wellhausen, employee of Florida State Prison
assigned to escort the official witnesses to the
execution of Allen Lee Davis, corroborated
reports of noise coming from Davis (which he
described as a low muffled moan), Davis's
stiffening body and tightening hands, and blood
coming from beneath the mask and movement of
Davis's chest after the current ceased, though
Wellhausen stated that it did not look like
breathing to him. He also said that it was not
uncommon for these chest movements to occur
after execution by electric chair.
Robert
K. Thomas, John H. "Jack" McNeill, and William
Muse established that Davis made a noise after
the placing of the mouthpiece into his mouth but
before the current was applied. McNeil stated
that he heard two noises, once when he put the
waist strap on Davis, and again when Thomas
tightened the chin strap for the head piece.
Thomas testified that he heard Davis moan one
time while the strap for the mouthpiece was
being tightened, but did not do anything about
it. Thomas also stated that he saw two bubbles
of blood in Davis's left nostril even before the
current had been applied to Davis, but did
nothing at that time either.
Thomas
Varnes, Warden at Wakulla Correctional
Institution, corroborrated some previous
testimony, and said that he thought the nose
bleed may have something to do with the high
blood pressure that Davis was reported to have.
Varnes, too, had high blood pressure and nose
bleeds, but testified that he does not have pain
with his nose bleeds.
Aubrey
D. Thornton, Assistant Warden at Florida State
Prison, corroborrated some previous testimony,
and added that the mouth strap, as it appeared
in a photograph presented as evidence, was not
in the same position that it was in when
Thornton positioned it on him prior to the
execution. He said that the mouth strap was
higher and closer to Davis' nose. He stated that
Davis appeared redder after the mouth strap was
applied, but that he did not appear to have
trouble breathing.
William
F. Mathews, P.A., physician's assistant for
Florida State Prison, corroborrated that Davis
could not have had trouble breathing. Matthews
took Davis's pulse for two minutes after the
electrical current ceased and did not feel
anything. He also checked for heart and lung
sounds and did not hear any. He said that he saw
Davis's chest slump but that Davis did not show
any sign of life when this occurred.
Robert
Kirschner, M.D., forensic pathologist from
Illinois, performed an autopsy on Davis and
testified that the nose bleed Davis experienced
appeared to come from septal area of the left
nostril. According to his observations during
the autopsy, Kirschner testified that he
believed that the mouthpiece partially
asphyxiated Davis and that the cause of death
was electrocution and association of partial
asphyxiation which occurred before the
electrocution, and that he believed that Davis
was suffering from conscious pain during the
period of asphyxiation.
Kris
Sperry, M.D., Chief Medical Examiner for the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, testified that
the application of ten amps of current to brain
tissue causes instant loss of consciousness,
including cessation of the experience of pain,
and that a person can indeed bleed while dead.
Sperry disagreed with Kirschner's opinion
regarding the mouthpiece, but thought that the
nose bleed occurred from some sort of increased
pressure in Davis' upper torso or head region.
William
Hamilton, M.D., Medical Examiner for the Eighth
Judicial Circuit, who performed an autopsy on
Davis, was deposed, stating that Davis had burns
on his scalp and forehead, on his suprapubic and
right upper medial thigh region, and behind the
right knee. He believed the burns on the inmates
executed in the previous five or six years were
smaller than those on inmates executed before
that time. He corroborrated earlier testimony in
addition.
The state of
Florida found that Davis had died a painless death
and was not asphyxiated.
Wikipedia.org
Florida: Torture is Still All the Rage
Quixote.org
Allen Lee Davis was electrocuted July 8 in yet
another grisly Florida execution. Upon examining photos from Davis’
execution, one medical expert observed that Davis experienced pain
as the mouthpiece pushed up against his nostrils, causing his nose
to bleed and suffocating him before the electricity struck his body.
Despite the horror movie nature of Davis’ death, Florida Governor
Jeb Bush said he is still "convinced that the electric chair is an
appropriate way to carry out death sentences in Florida."
The Chair’s Horrific History
This is not the first time that Florida’s 76-year-old
electric chair has performed its "job" in a particularly repulsive
way. The 1990 electrocution of Jesse Tafero caused flames to burst
from his head the instant electricity was applied. According to the
Florida Department of Corrections (DOC), the synthetic sponge that
lined the electrical head fitting had caught fire.
To demonstrate their theory, they put a similar
sponge in a kitchen toaster, where it caught fire. Another test was
conducted with a fire-resistant sea sponge, using a tub of water to
replace the body and a colander for the head. This sponge did not
catch fire. As a result of these Frankenstein-like experiments,
synthetic sponges were banned. Despite the ban on synthetic sponges,
Pedro Medina’s head erupted into flames during his electrocution in
March 1997. Immediately following this second atrocity, prisoner Leo
Alexander Jones sued the Florida DOC on the basis that the electric
chair constituted cruel and unusual punishment (which is banned by
the US Constitution).
The Florida Supreme Court imposed a five-month
moratorium in 1997 while it considered Jones’ suit. The court
ultimately upheld the chair as constitutional and executions resumed.
It did order the DOC to write down their execution procedures, which
up until that point had only been relayed by word of mouth. In an
particularly cruel mandate, the court ordered Jones to watch the
next test of the electric chair. Unfortunately, official scrutiny of
the chair’s use has done little to inform the public. In November
last year, Florida voters passed a ballot initiative that wrote
death by electrocution into Florida’s State Constitution.
The Debate Goes On
Earlier this year, the Florida DOC hired a
structural engineer to evaluate the chair. The inspector determined
that the problem was the wooden chair itself. In a morbid twist, he
then posed in the chair for a photo, which he plans to use as his
Christmas card. Before Davis’s execution, the State of Florida
announced that it had replaced the 72-year-old electric chair with a
new one. The DOC did in fact replace the chair with a replica from
the DOC museum, but the original electrical anodes that are attached
to the victim were not replaced.
In the hearing following Davis’s electrocution,
Florida Supreme Court Judge Clarence Johnson ruled that the chair
did not constitute cruel and usual punishment. Johnson’s 33-page
decision read like a medical opinion: " Allen Lee Davis did not
suffer any conscious pain while being electrocuted in Florida’s
electric chair. Rather, he suffered instantaneous and painless death
once the current was applied to him." The court appears unwilling to
intervene no matter how bloody the execution. Contact Governor Jeb
Bush and tell him that the electric chair is cruel and unusual
punishment!
Allen Lee Davis
CrimeMagazine.com
The execution of Allen Lee Davis in the Florida
electric chair on July 8, 1999, was so violent that it set off a
shock wave that ripples around the world. When the Florida Supreme
Court ruled, yet again, that execution by electrocution is not
unconstitutional, a dissenting justice attached three photographs of
the execution to his dissent.
Since then, nearly a million people
have visited, or tried to visit, the Florida Supreme Court web site.
The photographs have drawn attention from all over the world, with
many foreign visitors expressing disgust, while many Floridians
rallied in support of "Old Sparky," as the Florida electric chair is
known. One Florida woman, in an email to the court, described the
photographs as "wonderful."
Each person can view the photographs, and read
the following lengthy excerpt from the dissent of Justice Shaw and
come to his or her own conclusion as to the propriety of capital
punishment, and electrocution in particular. As Justice Shaw points
out, the United States is the only country in the world that uses
electrocution as a means of execution, and even in the United States
only four states still use this method of execution.
Justice Shaw describes in detail three recent
executions, including that of Davis, wherein the execution went awry.
He points out that Davis not only died from electrocution, but from
being smothered by the large leather strap that held his head to the
electric chair. Witnesses described Davis as either screaming or
moaning prior to the current being turned on.
Davis had been
convicted for murdering a woman and her two daughters. That his
crimes were heinous and totally reprehensible is not in dispute.
What is controversial is how Davis was executed. His death was
tortured and violent. His execution was so bungled that his cause of
death was at least partially due to asphyxiation.
In killing Davis in such an intentionally inept
manner, the State of Florida sank to a gruesome level of barbarity.
For those who don’t care that Florida violated Davis’ civil rights,
and for those, in fact, who applaud the cruel and unusual punishment
inflicted on Davis, I can only say that in trashing his rights
Florida trashed everyone’s rights. Does anyone really want the
government in charge of torture as well as incarceration and
execution? A government with such power would be known as a police
state. The following is an excerpt from Justice Shaw’s dissenting
opinion.
Davis' Execution
"The execution of Allen Lee Davis on July 8,
1999, differed from prior executions in that here Department of
Corrections (DOC) officials took post-execution color photos of
Davis before he was removed from the electric chair. (Several of the
photos are appended to this dissenting opinion.) These photos, when
combined with eyewitness accounts, provide a vivid picture of a
violent scene.
According to witnesses' accounts, when Davis was
being strapped into the chair, guards placed a solid leather mouth-strap
across his mouth and nose area. This mouth-strap is wide--approximately
five inches from top to bottom--and it covered the entire lower
portion of Davis's face from the bottom of his chin to immediately
below his nose.
The strap was fastened so tightly against his face
and was so wide that it pushed his nose severely upward, blocking
his nostrils at least partially. A heavy fabric facemask was placed
on top of this apparatus, further occluding his airway. And then, as
explained below, blood began flowing from his nose prior to
electrocution. This too obstructed his nostrils.
"The trial court below explained that the
pathologist who conducted a post-execution autopsy on Davis
concluded that he had been at least partially asphyxiated prior to
electrocution: Robert Kirschner, M.D., forensic pathologist from
Illinois, testified as an expert in the area of forensic pathology.
Kirschner testified that he performed an autopsy
on the body of Allen Lee Davis. He testified that during Davis's
autopsy, he was unable to identify the precise source of the
nosebleed that Davis suffered, but that it was coming from the
septal area of the left nostril. Kirschner testified that the
placement of the mouth strap across Davis' mouth inhibited Davis'
breathing and caused him to become at least partially asphyxiated
before the application of electrical current to him.
Kirschner
testified that he is of the opinion that Davis' death was caused by
electrocution and association of partial asphyxiation which occurred
before the electrocution. "Aubrey D. Thornton, Assistant Warden at
Florida State Prison, testified that he was one of the individuals
responsible for strapping Allen Lee Davis into the electric chair...
Thornton also testified that Davis' face began to turn red after the
mouth strap was applied to him." (Emphasis added.)
"After Davis' airflow had been blocked by the
mouth-strap, the face-mask, and his own blood, Davis made several
sounds under the face-mask which were described variously as muffled
screams, moans, or yells, as if he were attempting to get the guards'
attention.
The trial court gave the following description:
‘John W. Moser, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel for the Middle
Region, testified that in his capacity as Capital Collateral
Regional Counsel, he witnessed the execution of Allen Lee Davis.
Moser testified that between the time Davis was secured in the
electric-chair and the time the electrical current was applied to
Davis, he heard what sounded like two screams from Davis.’
"Mark Lazarus, Victim Assistance Administrator
for the Florida Department of Corrections, testified that he
observed the execution of Allen Lee Davis. Lazarus testified that
after the head piece was placed on Davis' head, he heard two one-syllable
sounds coming from Davis and that the sounds sounded like Davis was
trying to ‘make some noise’ or ‘yell out.’ "Thomas Varnes, Warden at
Wakulla Correctional Institution, testified that he witnessed the
execution of Allen Lee Davis. Varnes testified that after the mouth
strap and chin strap of the head piece were tightened and the face
mask was lowered, he heard Davis moan like he was trying to say
something.
"James Crosby, Warden of Florida State Prison
testified that after the mouth piece was placed on Davis, and just
before the execution, he heard two muffled sounds from Davis, which
sounded like Davis was trying to say something. (Emphasis added.)
"Prior to and during the electrocution, blood
flowed freely from Davis' nose, ran over the mouth-strap, and
spilled onto his chest, forming a pool the size of a dinner plate on
his white shirt. Again, in the words of the trial court below:
"‘Sheila McAllister, Correctional Probation Officer at Wakulla
Correctional Institution, testified that she witnessed the execution
of Allen Lee Davis . . . McAllister also testified that while the
current was on she observed blood on Davis' chest, and she observed
something dripping from behind Davis' mask.’
"Michael R. Collins, employed with Florida State
Prison as a nurse, testified that he attended the execution of Allen
Lee Davis... Collins further testified that after the electrical
current was stopped and after Mr. Matthews, the Florida State Prison
physician's assistant, was examining Davis, he observed blood on
Davis' shirt in his chest area and on his upper right side, by his
collar. Collins stated that the blood was dripping from under the
mask.
"William Muse, Lieutenant with the Florida
Department of Corrections, assigned to Florida State Prison,
testified that he witnessed the execution of Allen Lee Davis . . ..
Muse testified that after the cycle of current had been terminated,
he observed blood on Davis' shirt, blood on the strap, and blood
coming from Davis' nostril [s]. (Emphasis added.) "In light of the
placement of the mouth-strap, the positioning of the face-mask, and
the flow of blood from his nostrils, it is reasonable to conclude –
as did Dr. Kirschner – that Davis was being smothered before he was
electrocuted.
"And finally, as with Tafero and Medina, Davis'
body was mutilated by burns on the head, face, and leg, as noted in
the trial court's order: "The deposition of William Hamilton, M.D.,
Medical Examiner for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, was read into the
record due to Hamilton's unavailability ... Hamilton testified that
Davis had burns on his scalp and forehead, on his superpubic and
right upper medial thigh region, and behind the right knee. (Emphasis
added.)
"The color photos taken by DOC show a ghastly
post-execution scene: Davis is wearing a white shirt and dark pants
and is restrained in the wooden chair by thick leather straps placed
across his arms, legs, torso, and mouth; the electrical head-piece
is attached to the top of his head with a leather strap that runs
under his chin; a sponge placed under the head-piece obscures the
entire top portion of his head down to his eyebrows; because of the
width of the mouth-strap, only a small portion of Davis' face is
visible above the mouth-strap and below the sponge, and that portion
is bright purple and scrunched tightly upwards; his eyes are
clenched shut and his nose is pushed so severely upward that it is
barely visible above the mouth-strap; although the exterior openings
of Davis' nostrils are partially visible, it appears as though the
interior openings may be covered by the mouth-strap; a stream of
blood pours from his nostrils, flows over the wide leather mouth-strap,
runs down his neck and chest, and forms a bright red pool (approximately
eight by twelve inches) on his white shirt. The scene is
unquestionably violent."
Florida's First Execution in New Electric Chair
Turns Bloody
CNN.com
July 8, 1999
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Florida officials
are defending their new electric chair after blood gushed from the
first man put to death in the device Thursday. The execution of
convicted murderer Allen "Tiny" Davis took place early Thursday
morning at Florida's Starke Prison.
"There was blood all over his shirt and in the
center of his chest and pouring out the side of his mouth," said
witness Ron Word. "It appeared just after the power was turned on."
But the Florida Department of Corrections said that was not true,
saying no witness actually saw the prisoner's face, which was
covered by a veil.
"According to doctors who examined him and
pronounced him dead, this was caused by a nosebleed," said C.J.
Drake, a department spokesman who also witnessed the execution.
Drake said a 7-inch wide star- or cross-shaped bloodstain could be
seen on Davis' white shirt. He also said blood oozed through the
holes of a strap around Davis' chest holding him in the chair. The
department official said nosebleeds are not uncommon. And Davis, a
344 pound man suffering from hypertension and arthritis, was taking
heavy doses of aspirin and Motrin -- both blood thinners.
Lawyers for Davis had tried to stop the execution
on the grounds that the voltage wouldn't be enough to humanely kill
a man of his size. After the execution, Davis lawyer Marty McClain
said a chart of the voltage showed that the current used fell short
of the 2,300 volts necessary to put someone to death humanely. "The
electric chair functioned as it was designed to function today,"
said Cory Tilley, a spokesman for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Davis was convicted and sentenced to death 17
years ago for the murder of Nancy Weiler, who was three months
pregnant, and her 5- and 3-year-old daughters at their home in
Jacksonville. The husband and father of the three victims sat
directly across from Davis during the execution. "His crime was so
heinous, animal-like and brutal that he deserves no less than the
execution carried out today," John Weiler said.
Chair's troubled history
Florida's new electric chair used electrical
equipment from the previous chair, named "Old Sparky" Davis'
execution was the first in Florida's new wooden electric chair. It
replaced the chair nicknamed "Old Sparky," which had been built by
inmates in 1923. The oak framework of the three-legged chair is new,
the electrical apparatus is not.
Use of the old chair was challenged
because of the 1997 execution of Pedro Medina, when foot-long flames
shot from his head. It was the second such incident in 10 years. The
state blamed sponges applied to his head during the electrocution.
That older chair was returned to use a year later after state courts
dismissed legal challenges that its use was cruel and unusual
punishment.
Factoid: This was believed to be the first time
in 44 Florida executions since capital punishment resumed in 1979
that the inmate bled. Florida is one of four states that use the
electric chair for executions. The executioner is a private citizen
who is paid $150 per execution. State law allows for his or her
identity to remain anonymous.
Association Rupture
Do we own our dead body? Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis
was executed in the State of Florida in 1999. After his
electrocution three of Davis dead body's photographs have been
published on Florida's High Court official website. "Whatever is
part of the opinion goes up. We do not censor anything." - said
Craig Waters, a spokesman for the high court. "It's part of the
public record." Are all US public records so carefully illustrated,
or it has some educational preferences in certain cases...
Without any doubt the pictures of electrocuted
Allen Lee "Tiny" have been published to show to the American public
that Florida's "Old Sparky" is working well. Though the real noise
around this photo exhibition was made in order to raise debates on
so-called 'cruelty' of execution on electric chair, as claimed some
court representatives later. (If electrocution is cruel, what is the
option than? To execute the prisoner by a lethal injection?)
This
whole show just proves what sort of horror and hypocrisy reigns in
some US State Administrations. While some wise and not so very wise
politicians manipulate with public opinion on violations of basic
human rights, we never seen a politician come up with an interesting
idea to mention that every human being, no matter what his
background is, has the exclusive rights on his dead body.
May be this could be the most basic human right
if one could own, at least, his dead body. Since the Barbaric
legislation in some US states allow the killing, sorry, the
execution of a criminal in the name of State, may be, Court
officials in those States could avoid using the images of executed
criminals, without the violation of basic human right. The right to
be killed in peace. This right is not written, but should it be
really written? Why not?
Especially, when the killing machine
belongs to the Government. Did Florida's Court officials demand the
right to publish the photographs of the dead body to its direct
owner: Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis? We are not sure. Probably he was
executed for the only purpose - to deliver impressive evidence to
Politicians who eager to illustrate their speeches while they
garantee to fight for the public security.
Let's precise that we do not have preferences or
any particular sympathy for criminals. There is no matter who is the
executed person and what are his crimes, do we like him or do we
hate him. Whatever the brutality of the crime is, the State cannot
take the advantage to send the criminal to the electric chair. "An
eye for an eye" is rather a street rule, it's most probably the rule
of jungle.
When such a rule is taken as a State justice practice,
the State becomes a jungle itself. Looking at photographs of
electrocuted Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis, one cannot feel anything but
hate towards murderers, towards evrything that destroys the life.
The image of murder is horrible.
In the conclusion we would add just one thing -
there are certainly people who get hard on looking at such pictures,
but let's hope that this number of excited people is really low and
that the guys who published theese images are not among those
excited persons. Otherwise we never know who of us will become the
next object of their exotic fantasies.
Who weeps for the
blood of the Weiler family?
Bob Greene - Chicago Tribune
July 14, 1999
Some people were horrified by what happened to Allen Lee Davis last
week.
Davis, 54, was put to death in Florida's electric chair. During his
execution, a spot of blood unexpectedly appeared on his shirt; by
the time the execution was finished, the blood spot had grown to
approximately 8 inches across.
Prison officials later said that the blood came from a simple
nosebleed, and that the blood dripped onto Davis' shirt. But some
witnesses said that the blood seemed to come from Davis' chest area.
All of this was used by some as evidence that putting prisoners to
death--specifically by using the electric chair--is an appalling and
cruel thing to do. The lawyer for another Florida man on Death Row
said, "The degrading and mutilating manner in which (Davis) died was
a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment. Blood gushing from the
face and chest of a dying inmate is repugnant to the conscience of
mankind." Civil liberties attorney Howard Simon said that the method
used to execute Davis was "barbaric."
Perhaps.
But before we go too far down the path of mourning the way in which
Allen Lee Davis died, maybe, just for a few moments, it is worth
reporting something that has not been commented upon much: what
Davis did to get to Death Row in the first place.
On May 11, 1982, Davis--an ex-convict--entered the Jacksonville,
Fla., home of the John Weiler family. Weiler, an executive with the
Westinghouse Corp., was on a business trip in Pittsburgh.
In the Weiler home, Allen Lee Davis attacked Nancy Weiler, 37, who
at the time was three months pregnant with the family's third child.
Davis bludgeoned Mrs. Weiler--who was the corresponding secretary of
the PTA at her children's school--so severely that she was barely
recognizable when police found her body. Davis brutalized Mrs.
Weiler with such force that the trigger guard on the gun with which
he was beating her broke, as did the wooden grips and metal frame of
its handle.
Davis tied up the Weiler's 10-year-old daughter, Kristy--a 5th-grade
student who hoped to become a nuclear engineer someday--and shot her
in the face, killing her.
The Weilers' other child -- 5-year-old Kathy -- tried to run from
Davis. He shot her in the back, and then beat her, crushing her
skull.
There was quite a bit of blood in the Weiler home after Davis had
killed the mother and her two children. Considerably more blood than
inadvertently appeared on Davis' shirt during the execution.
When prisoners are wrongly sent to Death Row, there is justifiable
outrage that the court system could condemn innocent people to
death. This is as it should be. But there was no question about
Allen Lee Davis. He murdered Mrs. Weiler and her two little girls.
No one disputes that.
And for 16 full years the State of Florida housed him, took care of
his physical needs, fed him all the food he desired (he ballooned up
to 344 pound in prison; one of his attorneys based an appeal on the
theory that Davis should not be executed because his obesity might
complicate the electrocution and cause him pain, which the attorney
said would be cruel and unusual punishment. The attorney did not
characterize the extent of the cruelty in the deaths of the Weiler
family.)
As his last meal before his execution, Davis received from the State
of Florida the dinner he had requested: a lobster tail, fried
potatoes, a half-pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clam
strips, half a loaf of garlic bread and 32 ounces of A&W root beer.
In 1982, Davis did not give Mrs. Weiler and her two children a
choice of a last meal before he killed them.
But now the focus is on the blood spot on Davis' chest, and whether
that indicates we are an immoral and vicious society for doing such
a thing to him.
John Weiler--whose wife and daughters have been dead for 17
years--apparently doesn't think so. At one point as he waited for
Davis to at last receive the punishment the courts had ordered for
him, Weiler said: "It is cruel and unusual punishment of the
victims, living and dead, to know that this animal . . . still
breathes."
And now Allen Lee Davis is dead. Evidently his death was a somewhat
unpleasant experience for him. There are a lot of things in this
world for the public to worry about. Davis' discomfort is not
necessarily one of them.
Lawyers attempt to save
man from chair
By Leslei Clark - Miami
Herald
Sunday, July
18, 1999
TALLAHASSEE -- A second
autopsy was performed Saturday on executed triple murderer Allen Lee
Davis as lawyers for condemned courthouse shooter Thomas Provenzano
tried to find a way to keep their client out of the electric chair.
The findings were inconclusive, but Chicago
pathologist Robert Kirschner noted that the burn marks on Davis'
head and right leg body were "less than normal,'' said Martin
McClain, an attorney for Provenzano.
"Generally in an execution, the skin is charred
black,'' McClain said. "Dr. Kirschner said it was not.''
Kirschner wants to look at pictures from the
initial autopsy performed the day of the execution before he reaches
any conclusions, McClain said.
Lawyers for Provenzano, who is scheduled to be
executed Sept. 14 for the shooting death of a bailiff, have charged
that Davis did not receive a big enough jolt of electricity to kill
him instantly.
Kirschner was traveling back to Chicago late
Saturday and could not be reached.
Davis' bloody death July 8 in the electric chair
prompted calls to permanently retire the chair and convinced the
Florida Supreme Court to postpone Provenzano's execution until a
judge determines whether the chair can reliably provide a quick and
painless death.
Department of Corrections officials and Gov. Jeb
Bush have maintained that the chair functioned properly.
Provenzano's attorney last week successfully
blocked Davis' scheduled cremation to conduct the autopsy.
Kirschner is expected to testify at the hearings
on the chair in Orlando July 28-30.
Kirschner also found that Davis' brain was "not
cooked,'' McClain said, leading the pathologist to believe there was
a "potential for brain activity'' and that Davis might have been "functionally
able to feel pain.''
That would be "inconsistent with the state's
notion of instant death,'' McClain said. Prison officials have
testified that the initial 2,300 volts the chair delivers makes for
a quick and painless death.
478 U.S. 1044
Allen Lee DAVIS
v.
Louie L. WAINWRIGHT, Secretary, Florida Department of
Corrections, et al
No. A-224
Kenneth Wayne HARDWICK
v.
Louie L. WAINWRIGHT, Secretary, Florida Department of
Corrections, et al
No. A-225
Supreme Court of the United States
September 23, 1986
On applications for stay.
The application for stay of execution
of the sentence of death, presented to Justice POWELL
and by him referred to the Court, is granted pending the
timely filing and disposition by this Court of a
petition for writ of certiorari. Should the petition for
a writ of certiorari be denied, this stay terminates
automatically. In the event the petition for writ of
certiorari is granted, this stay shall continue pending
issuance of the mandate of this Court.
Justice POWELL, with whom THE CHIEF
JUSTICE joins, concurring.
Allen Davis and Kenneth Hardwick were
scheduled to be executed on September 23, 1986. On the
morning of September 22, Davis and Hardwick filed habeas
corpus petitions in the Florida Supreme Court, that has
original jurisdiction to issue extraordinary writs under
Fla.Rule App.Proc. 9.030(a)(3). The Florida Court denied
both applications by order, stating in each case that it
would "file an opinion at a later date setting forth its
reasons for the denial of this Petition." At 10:25 p.m.
on that day, less than nine hours before the scheduled
executions, Davis and Hardwick filed applications with
me, as Circuit Justice, seeking stays of execution until
this Court can consider their petitions for writs of
certiorari to review the Florida decisions. The sole
basis for their request is a claim that in Florida
capital punishment is applied discriminatorily on the
basis of the race of the victim. I granted a temporary
stay until September 23 at 3 p.m. and referred the
applications to the full Court.
I
The State asks us to deny the
applications, claiming that Davis and Hardwick were
barred by state law from raising their claims in the
Florida Supreme Court. The State asserts that Davis's
claim was barred because he did not raise it on direct
appeal from his conviction. See Stone v. State, 481
So.2d 478, 479 (Fla.1985). The State also asserts that
Hardwick's claim was filed in the wrong forum. See Ford
v. Wainwright, 451 So.2d 471 ( Fla.1984) (a claim may
not be raised for the first time in original habeas
proceedings in the Florida Supreme Court). According to
the State, Hardwick's claim should have been filed in a
Florida trial court under Fla. Rule Crim.Proc. 3.850.
Davis and Hardwick ask us to ignore these procedural
questions.
We note that Davis filed a habeas
petition last night, September 22, in the federal
district court for the Middle District of Florida
(Black, J .). This morning, that Court denied the
petition and refused to grant a certificate of probable
cause. Judge Black concluded that Davis had abused the
writ by "intentionally delaying the raising of grounds
for relief." 1
Despite this record of unexplained
delay, I concur in the Court's decision to grant these
applications. They now raise claims similar to the issue
presented in Hitchcock v. Wainwright, 476 U.S. ___
(1986) (writ of certiorari granted), to be argued here
on October 15, 1986. No Florida court has specifically
addressed the State's contentions that the claims are
procedurally barred. The Florida Supreme Court decisions
may rest on those grounds, but that Court has not
published an opinion. In the past I have found
procedural bars apparent on the face of a stay
application. See Woodard v. Hutchins, 464 U.S. 377, 378
(1984) (POWELL, J., concurring). I am reluctant to do so
here, however, because the alleged bars depend on an
interpretation of state law. In these applications, I am
unwilling to assume that the Florida Supreme Court
decisions rest on procedural grounds not apparent on the
face of the orders.
II
No explanation has been offered
either by Davis or by Hardwick for waiting more than a
month, and until the eve of the execution date, to
assert the present claims in any court, state or
federal. It is my understanding that the Florida Bar, at
least since 1984, has assured state and federal courts
that it would provide counsel promptly when needed in
capital cases. Although unlikely, it may be that neither
Davis nor Hardwick knew that counsel always were
available. Nor are we informed as to when counsel were
engaged in these cases. In any event, I suggest that
counsel owe this Court a duty to explain why no action
was taken until the day before the execution date,
making it difficult both for the courts below and for
this Court to make the carefully considered judgments so
essential in capital cases. In the future, and here I
can write only for myself, I will expect counsel whose
papers are filed with me as Circuit Justice on the eve
of the execution date, to make an appropriate
explanation. 2 Respect for
this Court, as well as duty to the client, requires no
less. If there has been deliberate or inexcusable delay,
the appropriate Committee of the Florida Bar will be
advised.
Justice REHNQUIST and Justice
O'CONNOR would deny the applications for stay.
Footnotes
[ Footnote 1
] Cf. Habeas Corpus Rule 9(a) (a petition may be
dismissed if the state is "prejudiced in its ability to
respond to the petition by delay in its filing" unless
the petitioner shows that it is based on newly-
discovered grounds).
[ Footnote 2
] Indeed, such an explanation should not be limited
to the period following the setting of an execution
date. As noted above, counsel are made available in
Florida in every capital case. Following conviction and
exhaustion of appeal remedies, counsel have a duty to
proceed with reasonable promptness to pursue state and
federal post-conviction remedies without awaiting the
setting of execution dates.
