Free Republic

Starke -- A convicted killer who argued that Florida's use of lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment was put to death Wednesday night after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly denied him another stay. Clarence Hill, 48, was executed for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police officer in a savings and loan robbery. He did not reply when asked if he had a last statement, staring straight at the ceiling. Hill had argued that the three chemicals used in Florida executions and by many other states — sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride — can cause excruciating...

MIAMI (AFP) - A US death row inmate in Florida, whose January execution was delayed at the last minute to allow him to contest the state's lethal execution method as inhumane, faces execution Wednesday after losing a series of court appeals. Clarence Hill, 49, a convicted murderer, has lodged an appeal with the US Supreme Court but the court has not made a ruling, Roger Maas, the head of the Florida Commission on Capital Cases said. "He has filed a petition to the US Supreme Court and he asked for a stay but they have not ruled on it," Maas...