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Killer Flames as Electric Chair Malfunctions

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Reuters

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Mar 25, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/25/97

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<A HREF='http://www.clari.net/'>ClariNet</A> <CLARI-ITEM TYPE>story</CLARI-ITEM> <CLARI-ITEM SLUGWORD>NEWS-EXECUTION</CLARI-ITEM> from <CLARI-ITEM FROM>Reuters</CLARI-ITEM> 
<H1><CLARI-ITEM HEADLINE>Killer Flames as Electric Chair Malfunctions</CLARI-ITEM></H1>
<CLARI-ITEM COPYRIGHT>Copyright 1997 by Reuters</CLARI-ITEM> / <CLARI-ITEM DATE>Tue, 25 Mar 1997 8:21:24 PST</CLARI-ITEM>
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<CLARI-ITEM STORY>
 STARKE, Fla. (Reuter) - Flame and smoke shot from a
convicted killer's head when Florida's electric chair
malfunctioned during an execution Tuesday.
 A six-inchflame and cloud of smoke shot from the head of
Pedro Medina as he died, prison officials said.
 Despite the fire and smoke, Florida Department of Correction
spokeswoman Kerry Slack said the execution was not interrupted
and Medina, a Cuban immigrant, appeared to react to the lethal
surges of electricity in a way similar to previously executed
prisoners.
 Medina, 39, was pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m. EST at the
Florida State Prison.
 Slack said the malfunction sent a thick cloud of smoke
through the execution chamber, prompting a security officer to
open a window to let out the smoke.
 ``We do not have any idea at this point what happened to
cause the flame,'' Slack said.
 Medina, who spent 14 years on Florida's death row, was
executed for the 1982 stabbing of an Orlando physical education
teacher. The execution was carried out despite claims of mental
illness by Medina, pleas for mercy from the victim's daughter
and a letter from the Pope John Paul II.
 In a brief statement just before his execution Medina
said: ``I'm still innocent.''
 The three-legged oaken electric chair used in Florida was
built by prisoners in 1923. When an execution is carried out,
the condemned prisoner is subjected to three cycles of
electricity, peaking at 2,000 volts.
 Tuesday's incident was the second time in nearly eight years
that the chair has malfunctioned during an execution. On May 4,
1990, flames and smoke rose from the head of Jesse Tafero, who
was convicted in 1976 of the murder of two police officers in
Broward County.
 When executioners hit the switch, Tafero breathed and
convulsed for four minutes as his executioners turned the
current off and on three times. The Tafero case prompted the
11th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Atlanta to block Florida
executions until the malfunction was addressed.
 Prison officials blamed the 1990 problem on a synthetic
sponge that padded the headpiece worn during the execution. The
sponge is soaked in saltwater to help conduct electricity and
placed inside the helmet-like headpiece.
 Prison officials said Tuesday that a natural sponge was used
in Medina's execution.
 Medina was convicted in 1983 for the murder of Dorothy
James, his neighbor and a 52-year-old public school teacher. He
was arrested in north Florida driving James' Cadillac and the
murder weapon was found in the car.
 Medina came to the United States in 1980, a member of the
Mariel boatlift that sent 110,000 Cubans to South Florida. After
clearing a initial criminal check, he was sponsored by members
of the First Presbyterian Church of Cape May, located in
southern New Jersey. On Monday night, congregation members held
a prayer vigil for Medina as they waited in case there was word
of a last minute stay.
 First scheduled to die on Dec. 5, Medina's case was
automatically delayed when his attorneys raised the insanity
defense. Some mental health experts hired by defense attorneys
testified he was schizophrenic and brain-damaged, but several
other experts appointed by the judge said Medina was faking
mental illness to stay alive.
 A panel of psychiatrists reviewed the case in mid-December
and found Medina sane.
 In January, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, the papal
apostolic pro-nuncio, urged Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles to grant
Medina clemency. But Chiles denied the request.
 James' daughter, Lindi James, also requested repeatedly that
Medina not be executed.
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