ARE FLORIDA'S EXECUTIONS HUMANE? ACCUSATIONS RISE OF IMPROPER PROCEDURES

• Florida has seen a dramatic increase in executions, with a record 19 in 2025 and six so far in 2026.
• Defense attorneys allege the state has used expired or incorrect drugs and improper dosages during lethal injections.
• Appeals have also challenged a policy allowing executioners to cut into an inmate to find a vein without requiring anesthesia.

Florida has increased the number of executions since the beginning of 2025, with a record 19 death row inmates put to death last year and six so far in 2026.

But defense attorneys for the inmates and anti-death-penalty advocates have accused the Florida Department of Corrections of violating the U.S. Constitution by allegedly using expired execution drugs, the wrong drugs, or insufficient amounts, and unnecessarily subjecting the inmates to cruel and unusual punishment during their executions.

In November 2025, attorneys for Frank Walls cited released records of FDOC execution logs of 13 executions between Feb. 13 and Sept. 30 to show "negligent administration of its lethal injection protocol" along with "a wide range of errors," including drug removal records apparently entered the day or even days after the execution occurred.

Walls' appeal failed, and he was executed on Dec. 19, 2025. Further requests for more log records from multiple defense attorneys to prove state malfeasance have been denied. Appeals on these grounds have also consistently been denied by both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorneys for Richard Knight, scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. on May 21, argued in a Supreme Court appeal that the state's protocols also allow for executioners to cut into inmates without anesthesia if necessary to place IV lines, potentially causing "serious illness and needless suffering."

That appeal was also denied, but Knight filed for an emergency stay of execution after a Tennessee execution scheduled hours before his was stopped, and the inmate, Tony Carruthers, was reprieved. Executioners were unable to find a vein and attempted two "venous cutdowns" without success, leaving him "in agony and bleeding," the appeal said.

A request has been sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for comment.

How do Florida's lethal injections work?

Florida's lethal injection protocol, which has been upheld in different forms as constitutional, involves the injection of three drugs into an inmate's IV:

• 200 mg of etomidate, a sedative and general anesthetic
• 1,000 mg of rocuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant and paralyzing agent, administered after the inmate is unconscious
• 480 mEq (milliequivalents) each of potassium acetate, which stops the heart

The drugs used are controversial. Florida switched to etimodate in 2017, but while it kicks in within a minute, the effects only last about 25-30 minutes, depending on the inmate's body weight, according to the National Library of Medicine. If the execution is delayed beyond that point, the effects could wear off, although the state's protocols do allow for a second dose.

The use of a paralytic such as the second drug is banned in Florida for animal euthanasia and critics say it could mask signs of distress from the first drug.

And while potassium acetate does cause a pulmonary edema, a 2016 study of 43 U.S. executions found fluid in the lungs and airways of 33 of the inmates, suggesting the first two drugs may have caused them to die from suffocation.

The released public records indicate some irregularities with Florida's executions. Below are examples reviewed by the USA TODAY Network and taken from multiple appeals filed by defense attorneys for several death row inmates in the last few months.

The use of different drugs

During the executions of Edward James and Michael Tanzi, the FDOC administered injectable lidocaine, according to Walls' appeal. That's an anesthetic drug, but not the one authorized in the official lethal injection protocol.

The use of expired drugs

According to an appeal from defense attorneys for James Hitchcock, the released logs seem to indicate that the FDOC administered etomidate that expired on Jan. 31, 2025, while executing at least four men months later.

• Kayle Bates was executed on Aug. 19
• Curtis Windom was executed on Aug. 28
• David Pittman was executed on Sept. 17
• Victor Jones was executed on Sept. 30

Defense attorneys claimed that expired etomidate, which is used to spare the person from the pain of death, may have been used in the execution of up to seven of the 13 men executed between January and the end of September.

Apparent incorrect dosages, questionable paperwork

Records for Thomas Gudinas' execution on June 24, 2025, show 1,000 mg of rocuronium bromide were removed, rather than the required 2,000 mg (four syringes of 500 mg each must be prepared, per the protocol, but only two are used in a normal execution). The drugs used were not logged until a day after his execution, according to defense appeals.

Hitchcock's appeal said that nothing was logged on the day of Anthony Wainwright's execution on June 10, 2025, but when the drugs were finally logged two days later, records showed the removal of 280 mEg of potassium acetate. The protocol calls for 480 mEg to be used.

Michael Bell was executed on July 15, 2025, but the logs don't record the drugs being removed for the procedure until the next day, and no entry for etomidate at all, Hitchcock's appeal stated.

Cutting into inmates without anesthesia

In an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for Richard Knight, scheduled to be executed on May 21 for the Cape Coral stabbing murders of a 21-year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter in 2000, his attorneys questioned part of Florida's Lethal Injection Protocol that allows an executioner to cut into the patient (called a central line venous cutdown) to expose a vein and insert an IV cannula at one or more sites when normal injections are not possible.

The updated policy, approved in February 2025, does not mention anesthesia. Knight's attorneys argued that such a procedure with local anesthesia is "sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering, and give[s] rise to sufficiently imminent dangers.” They also note the policy does not require anyone on the execution team to be trained in venous cutdowns.

The appeals were denied, but Knight filed a request for an emergency stay of execution after executioners tried that exact procedure for about an hour and 20 minutes during a Tennessee execution scheduled earlier on May 21. The Tennessee Department of Correction called off Tony Carruthers' execution, and Gov. Bill Lee granted him a one-year reprieve.

C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida's service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.