BY BILL CAIMAN
MIAMI - Working people here saw the brutality of the capitalist "justice" system on March 25, when the hood covering the head of a prisoner being executed at the Florida State Prison in Starke, north of Gainsville burst into flames. In the days following the execution, state politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties have defended the execution of Pedro Medina as a "deterrent" to crime. There are 377 inmates on Florida's death row, the next two executions are scheduled for April 15 and 29.

Medina, a Cuban who came to Miami in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift and had a history of mental illness, was found guilty of the 1982 murder of an Orlando, Florida, schoolteacher and sentenced to death. The daughter of the murder victim, as well as Pope John Paul II, pled with Florida officials to commute Medina's death sentence. But the execution took place as planned, except that the moistened sponges, placed on the victim's shaved head to absorb some of the heat generated by the electric chair's 2000 volts of electricity, dried out. They caught fire and sent foot-long flames off of Medina's head. Dr. Belle Almojera, the prison doctor attending the execution, insisted that "in my professional opinion, he died a very quick, humane death."

To deflect the horror and revulsion many people felt, state officials went on the offensive. "The execution I saw did not appear to be cruel and unusual, and in fact it was more humane than what was done to the victim," declared Florida secretary of state Sandra Mortham, who boasted of having taken her family to witness an execution last year.

Gov. Lawton Chiles argued that Medina's electrocution was not cruel and unusual punishment. "You know, putting somebody to death is not the most friendly thing that you can do," he said.

This opened up a discussion among politicians on the "best" way to carry out legal murder. Some said "old Sparky" - the guards' affectionate nickname for the electric chair built by prison inmates in 1923 -should be retired and a "less offensive" form of execution employed. The Miami Herald maintained that "murderers executed in Florida are generally treated better than their victims were. Even so, it's time for Florida to use a different method of carrying out the death penalty - if not for the sake of those executed, than out of consideration for those whose official duties require them to be present at executions."

State Attorney General Robert Butterworth countered that a faulty electric chair might provide a stronger deterrent to crime.

State Senate majority leader Locke Burt argued that changing state laws to switch from electrocution to lethal injection would only slow down the pace of executions by giving death penalty opponents another appeal issue. Besides, Burt added, lethal injection "appears to be a medical procedure, and a painless death is not punishment. I think it's important that there is a deterrent and a punishment element."

House Justice Council Chairman Victor Crist suggested "If you really want the least painful, most accurate method, it would be the guillotine." Crist said he might propose legislation giving death row inmates several options for how they will be executed.

Other executions in Florida have been "botched," including the 1990 execution of Jesse Tafero. "With Jesse Tafero," related Associated Press reporter Ron Wood, "they kept turning the power off and on so we had three separate incidents of flames" shooting from the face mask placed on the victim.

Two days after Medina's state-sanctioned murder, more than 50 protesters against capital punishment participated in a vigil at the Capitol.  
 
 
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