Lawyers for Florida death row inmate Mark James Asay asserted objections over the weekend to the state’s recently revised Lethal Injection protocol. Asay’s execution is slated for the evening of August 24. His attorneys have put a legal challenge over a new death drug cocktail before Florida’s Supreme Court.
A new three-drug combination is set to replace injecting the condemned prisoner with midazolam as the first drug administered in carrying out capital punishment. Instead, the modified mix calls for an initial injection of the sedative etomidate – followed by an injection of a paralytic drug and, finally, a heart-stopping drug.
Condemned supremacist killer poses court return to midazolam or use one-drug to execute
Asay’s lawyers want the state’s high court to nullify the injection protocol and revert to the former punishment procedure that uses the sedative midazolam. As an option to the old injection process, Asay’s attorneys also proposed that the state implement a single drug injection to carry out the death sentence.
Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Asay’s death warrant on July 3. It was the second death warrant the governor signed for the imposition of Asay’s sentence. The convicted killer was originally scheduled to die on March 17, 2016, but the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Hurst v. Florida in January 2016.
The ruling declared the state’s capital punishment sentencing process unconstitutional. The court determined that Florida’s system favored judges – wielding more power than juries.
Judge didn’t budge on attempt to call injection procedure unconstitutional
Lawyers for the condemned inmate were futile last month in swaying Duval County Circuit Court Judge Tatiana Salvador to rule the state’s injection procedure unconstitutional.
As a result, Marty McClain, Asay’s attorney, asked the state’s Supreme Court to approve a declaration from anesthesiologist John Robert Sneyd. Sneyd contends etomidate comes with the risk that the execution team may not be able to monitor whether the inmate is unconscious when the state commences the execution protocol.
Florida’s Assistant Attorney General Charmaine Millsaps, however, requested that the state’s high court reject the declaration.
Her legal argument is that Asay’s request of the court is “procedurally barred,” according to the Gainesville Sun. Judge Salvador was not presented with McClain’s request that the court accepts Sneyd’s declaration.
Death row inmate’s legal wrangling seeks to circumvent trial court’s role
Millsaps filed a three-page motion on Monday, stating that the Supreme Court can’t consider issues that have not been determined by the trial court. Her motion stated that requesting the acceptance of the anesthesiologist’s declaration was an effort, by Asay, to “circumvent the trial court’s fact-finding role,” the Gainesville Sun also reported.
McCain countered Millsaps’ motion with another filing on Monday. He has accused Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office of denying his client due process by using statutory power to effect the execution date of his client.
McCain stated that the outcome of utilizing the power of her office, his client’s opportunities to have the U.S. Supreme Court review Asay’s case have diminished. Asay’s lawyer contends that Bondi’s office “misrepresented the status” of his client’s case when giving Governor Scott the okay for scheduling Asay’s execution, according to the Gainesville Sun.
State slated first white man to die for killing black victims
If Asay is executed later this month, he will make history in Florida, According to the Capitalist and the American Civil Liberties Union, no white man in the state has ever been executed for murdering a black victim. Asay, a White Supremacist, will be executed for killing Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell in 1988.
