Inmates' attorneys say refurbished electric chair faulty

Attorneys for two death row inmates are seeking stays of execution for their clients until a hearing can be held.

By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 29, 1999

Florida's overhauled electric chair may not be working properly, say defense attorneys for two convicted killers scheduled to be executed next week.

In court briefs, attorneys for condemned killers Thomas Provenzano and Allen Lee Davis say Department of Corrections documents show that the 76-year-old electric chair, whose cracking wooden seat was replaced last year, may be operating with "obsolete breakers" and outdated electrical parts that a company had proposed replacing in April for $265,000.

But Martin McClain, a lawyer representing the inmates, says the Department of Corrections apparently decided not to install the new electric parts, including head and leg electrodes, because they cost too much.

New information about the electric chair's condition is scheduled to be presented today in oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.

The attorneys for Provenzano and Davis are seeking stays of execution until a hearing can be held to determine whether the chair in its present condition constitutes "cruel or unusual punishment," which would violate the U.S. Constitution.

Joellyn Rackleff, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, declined to comment Monday on the new documents.

Lawyers for the Florida attorney general's office, which is responsible for shepherding capital punishment cases through the courts, say in court briefs that the Corrections Department has performed routine maintenance and repairs on breakers and other electrical parts to keep the chair functioning "in the most reliable condition possible."

The state lawyers also say that inmates executed in the chair feel no conscious pain and that four prisoners were "successfully executed" last year.

"In the entire history of judicial electrocutions in Florida, there has never been a problem with the electrical equipment," lawyers Richard B. Martell and Curtis M. French wrote. "The electrical equipment has always been able to deliver a sufficient current to cause instantaneous death to the condemned prisoner."

In 1997, Florida courts ruled that Old Sparky was in "excellent condition" and execution in the chair did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

But attorneys for the inmates say that 1,200 pages of new documents, first disclosed by the Department of Corrections on June 21, raise new concerns about whether the state can carry out electrocutions without inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.

"The (Department of Corrections) records smack of ineptitude, ignorance, fear of judicial proceedings and callous disregard for the condemned," the inmates' attorneys wrote, adding that the documents reveal repeated malfunctions of breakers during tests last year and in January.

The attorneys cite a letter dated April 12 from a firm called ABB Services estimating that the cost of replacing the electric chair's switch gear and vacuum breakers would be $265,000.

In addition, a consultant offered to build two head electrodes and two leg electrodes -- the pieces that conduct electricity through the body -- for $3,800. The proposal said the new head electrode would be a rectangular piece "with approximately twice the area of the present circular screen" to reduce "tissue damage" during electrocution.

"Due to the estimated cost," according to the inmates' attorneys, neither the electrodes nor the breakers were replaced.

"Grave questions exist about the new wooden chair, the old electrical circuitry, the expertise of the death chamber staff, the viability of (the Department of Corrections') execution and testing protocols, and the circuit court's conclusion that inmates executed in the chair will suffer no conscious pain," the attorneys wrote.

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