Florida Could Introduce New Execution Methods: Here’s What You Need to Know

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Starting next month, Florida will officially have the option to implement new methods for executing death row inmates, although there are certain restrictions involved.

That’s because of a state law (HB 903) that’s set to take effect on July 1, alongside over 120 others.

The legislation introduces a range of technical amendments concerning various issues such as prepayment of court expenses, statutes of limitations regarding prisoner lawsuits, and the tracking of inmate locations.

However, one of the more prominent issues tackled by the law is the death penalty.

Previously, Florida law required that executions be carried out by either electrocution or lethal injection, with the choice of method left to the discretion of the inmate facing execution.

However, HB 903 expands those methods to include anything “not deemed unconstitutional.”

While lethal injection is still the default method of execution, the law will allow these other methods if the state is unable to effectively acquire the chemicals used for lethal injections.

According to Legislative analysts, the company responsible for the lethal injection drugs used in 13 federal executions back in 2020 and 2021 — Absolute Standards — announced that it will no longer produce that drug, pentobarbital.

“For more than a decade, departments of corrections across the United States have had difficulty acquiring some of the drugs traditionally used in lethal injection executions,” an analysis of the law’s sister bill reads. “Many drug manufacturers have explicitly banned the use of their products in executions, and others have stopped producing these drugs completely.”

As a result, states like Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina have begun allowing the use of firing squads as a means of execution.

Earlier this year, South Carolina used a firing squad to execute an inmate — the first to die by that method in 15 years. Alabama also executed a death row inmate last year using a new execution method: suffocation via nitrogen gas.

With HB 903 taking effect, it will add Florida to this growing list of states, allowing the use of firing squads or nitrous gas for executions unless the Supreme Court were to rule these methods unconstitutional.

During a committee meeting in March, an advocate for the legislation — Sen. Jonathan Martin (R-Ft. Myers) — said that a potential shortage of lethal injection chemicals could cause issues in the future when meting out executions.

“There could be a point in the future where there’s a shortage of those chemicals, but we want to make sure that any executions that are fulfilling the governor’s orders, a jury, a judge, that there are constitutional ways (of executing inmates) out there,” he said.

Board Secretary Grace Hanna for the FADP spoke out against the proposal during that meeting, claiming that the change would unduly expand the range of execution options.

“This legislation seeks to expand Florida’s execution method without providing any concrete information on the execution methods that would be used,” Hanna said. “This legislation opens the door for the state to use any execution method on which the court has not weighed.”

Despite the objection, HB 903 was ultimately approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis back in May.