Palm Coast Legal News - Death Penalty

Lethal Injections and the death penalty.

In Mohammad v. State of Florida, 38 Fla.L.Weekly S919, decided December 19, 2013, the Supreme Court of Florida held that with regard to the death penalty, the use of certain drugs in Florida’s three drug injection protocol did not violate the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.  The Court also held that trial court did not abuse the trial court’s discretion in quashing subpoenas issued to journalists or in excluding news articles as inadmissible hearsay.

In Florida v. Herring, the Supreme Court of Florida held that even if a person convicted of murder had an I.Q. of 70 (two standard deviations from the mean of 1 00) that person could still be given the death penalty under Fla. Stat. 921.137(1). The Court held that an I.Q. of 70 is not an absolute bar to execution.