On 24 September, in a 4-3 vote, the Florida Supreme...

On 24 September, in a 4-3 vote, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the use of the state's electric chair in executions was constitutional and is not cruel or usual punishment. But the court also agreed that the state legislature should give death row inmates a choice between electrocution and lethal injection. Justice Leander Shaw, one of the three justices who dissented from the high court's ruling, wrote a strong opinion assailing the bloody spectacle which had resulted from the state's insistence on using the electric chair. Shaw, the veteran jurist on the bench, charged that Davis was "brutally tortured to death." In October, the entire Supreme Court opinion was posted on the Internet, along with the dissenting opinion and three pictures of Allen Lee Davis taken immediately after his electrocution.One of the next inmates to be executed, Anthony Bryan, filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a rare and surprising move, the Court agreed to stay Bryan's execution and to review the constitutionality of the electric chair for the first time in over 100 years. Many Florida officials are advocating that the state hold a special legislative session to change the method of execution, perhaps allowing a choice of lethal injection to the inmate. If this occurs, it may render Bryan's appeal moot since he would no longer face mandatory electrocution.