WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 24, 2026, denied an appeal challenging a Florida Supreme Court ruling in which a Florida man on death row argued that the state’s lethal injection protocol risked a botched execution. Hours later, Melvin Trotter was executed at Florida State Prison.
In 1987, a Florida trial court sentenced Melvin Trotter to death after the murder of a 70-year-old woman in Palmetto, Florida. Mr. Trotter appealed the ruling three years later to the state Supreme Court, which declared the lower court proceedings a mistrial. However, in the subsequent trial, Mr. Trotter was resentenced to death.
Mr. Trotter’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied their petition Feb. 24. In their appeal, Mr. Trotter’s attorneys argued that a series of unsuccessful lethal injections in the state constituted a violation of Mr. Trotter’s constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
In a statement published by the court and authored by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court found that the evidence presented was not substantial enough to prove a pattern of misapplication of lethal injection violating Mr. Trotter’s Eighth Amendment rights.
However, Justice Sotomayor, in the statement, emphasized the importance of transparency among the states’ lethal injection programs, the courts and the public.
Justice Sotomayor argued in the statement that Mr. Trotter’s attorneys had not done “…enough to show that Florida’s administration of its lethal-injection protocol is ‘sure or very likely to cause serious and needless suffering,’ as the Court’s Eighth Amendment precedents require.” However, she later added that “…the record to date is troubling.”
In the statement, Justice Sotomayor commented on a series of botched lethal injections in the state, including incorrect dosages and the use of nonprotocol drugs.
In her statement, Justice Sotomayor criticized the Florida state government’s lack of transparency in its lethal injection program. She compared the state’s treatment of people facing lethal injection to a “Catch-22,” as the state has refused requests for records on the program, disabling people on death row from making successful appeals—like Mr. Trotter.
Furthermore, in the statement, Justice Sotomayor questioned the state’s confidentiality interests in restricting information on its execution protocols.
Justice Sotomayor added in the statement that “…the State appear[s] not to have any legitimate confidentiality interest in shielding from inspection basic facts about the implementation of its execution protocol, such as whether the State is using expired drugs.”
Justice Sotomayor concluded by emphasizing the importance of transparency in the state’s lethal injection procedures to “instill[] confidence in the protocol for everyone—prisoners, the courts, and the public alike,” as mentioned in the statement.
Mr. Trotter was executed the same day at Florida State Prison in Bradford County, Florida, according to a news report by David Fischer for the Public Broadcasting Service. There was no comment of malpractice or suffering by Mr. Trotter as he died.
Lethal injections across the nation’s various death row programs have come under fire as incidents of their failure have been made known to the public and criminal justice advocacy groups. Just last month, a series of botched executions in Arizona sparked conflict in the state over the humanity and effectiveness of lethal injections.
Florida last year led the nation in executions, carrying out 19 of the 47 executions in 2025, according to an article by the Death Penalty Information Center. Mr. Trotter was the second person executed by the state this year.
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