St. Petersburg, Fla. — Former Florida State Prison Warden Ron McAndrew argues that Florida’s rapid scheduling of executions is pushing the state’s lethal injection system beyond its limits, increasing the risk of faulty administrations and inflicting lasting trauma on both condemned prisoners and prison staff, in an article published last Wednesday in the Tampa Bay Times.
McAndrew centers his argument on a lawsuit filed by Frank Walls, who was scheduled to be Florida’s nineteenth execution this year, contending that the pace itself has become a constitutional and operational hazard. “Walls’ suit challenges how Florida is currently administering lethal injections, not as a hypothetical protocol, but as a real-world process carried out at an unprecedented pace,” McAndrew writes.
The article details the core concerns raised in Walls’ lawsuit and explains its broader implications for the state’s execution practices. McAndrew states, “According to the filings, the Florida Department of Corrections has poorly maintained pharmacy logs, inconsistently documented how drugs are prepared and administered, and used lower-than-required doses at least twice this year.”
He further asserts that in four separate executions there were concerns about the use of expired drugs, underscoring the risks of rushing a procedure that demands exacting precision. McAndrew emphasizes that “Florida’s lethal injection protocol relies on precise dosing to ensure the first drug renders a person fully unconscious before the remaining drugs cause paralysis and cardiac arrest.”
McAndrew goes on to remind readers that administering lethal injection is an extraordinarily meticulous process, describing it as “troublesome to begin with.” He adds, “If that process breaks down — because of degraded drugs, improper dosages, or sloppy documentation — a person may experience extreme pain while unable to move or communicate.”
“The U.S. Constitution forbids that,” McAndrew states, arguing that the current execution schedule increases the likelihood of such breakdowns. The article reinforces that back-to-back executions inevitably strain preparation and staffing, noting that “they require correctional officers, supervisors, and medical personnel to prepare drugs, verify records, monitor consciousness, and respond if something goes wrong.”
Drawing on his firsthand experience as a prison warden, McAndrew describes the profound toll executions take on those required to carry them out. “I have seen the toll this takes. When something goes wrong in an execution chamber, it is not elected officials who absorb the consequences. It is prison staff,” he writes.
At Florida’s current execution pace, McAndrew warns that mistakes are increasingly inevitable. “They do not talk about the strain placed on the workforce they rely on, or the increased risk of error when speed replaces care,” he asserts.
McAndrew argues that execution is not the only option available to the state. “Florida already has an alternative. Life without parole exists. It protects public safety,” he writes, emphasizing that political leaders are not the ones who witness or bear the aftermath of executions, while prison staff are “the ones who carry the memories long after the chamber is cleaned and the state moves on.”
“I have lived with the consequences of executions. I know what the state asks of the people inside its prisons when it insists on killing in our name,” McAndrew recalls. He concludes by framing his experience and Walls’ lawsuit as a broader warning, writing that it asks “whether Florida can continue killing on a schedule without cutting constitutional corners — and without breaking the people it asks to carry out those deaths.”
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