Hill v. McDonough

Hill v. McDonough, 547 U.S. 573 (2006), was a United States Supreme Court case challenging the use of lethal injection as a form of execution in the state of Florida . The Court ruled unanimously that an Eighth Amendment challenge to the method of execution properly raised a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , which provides a cause of action for civil rights violations, rather than under the _habeas corpus _ provisions. Accordingly, a previously filed petition for habeas relief could not bar the present challenge.

Contents

• 1 Factual background

  • 1.1 Lethal injection in Florida

• 2 Lower court proceedings

  • 2.1 Florida state courts

  • 2.2 U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

  • 2.3 Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

  • 2.4 Certiorari granted

• 3 Parties and counsel

  • 3.1 Petitioner

  • 3.2 Respondents

  • 3.3 Counsel

  • 3.4 Counsel Amicus Curiae

• 4 Briefs of the petitioner and respondent

  • 4.1 Question One

    • 4.1.1 Hill's brief

    • 4.1.2 Government's brief

    • 4.1.3 Hill's rebuttal brief

    • 4.1.4 Question Two

      • 4.1.4.1 Hill's brief

      • 4.1.4.2 Government's brief

      • 4.1.4.3 Hill's rebuttal brief

• 5 The court's decision

• 6 See also

• 7 References

• 8 External links

Factual background

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In 1983, Clarence E. Hill was convicted of the murder of a Pensacola, Florida police officer, and subsequently sentenced to death in 1985, in the Florida Supreme Court case of Hill v. State. At a resentencing hearing in 1986, Hill's death sentence was reinstated, this time being upheld by the Florida Supreme Court . In November 1989, a warrant for Hill's execution was signed by then Governor Robert Martinez , after which Hill sought postconviction relief in both the Florida state courts and the U.S. District Court . In 1992, Hill's relief was granted when it was ruled that the Florida Supreme Court as well as Hill's trial court had not properly reevaluated the aggravating factors warranting a death sentence when one of them was vacated. In Hill v. State, the Florida Supreme Court , having sufficiently reweighed the mitigating factors , resentenced Hill to death. Hill then sought federal habeas corpus relief, which was first denied by the U.S. District Court , then affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lethal injection in Florida

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In January 2000, the Florida legislature amended its state statutes changing the prescribed method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection , unless the person sentenced to death affirmatively elects to be executed by electrocution. The precise authority by which lethal injection was to be carried out was left to the Florida Department of Corrections .

The Florida Department of Corrections does not publish its information about lethal injection , and so the only source available describing Florida's use of the lethal injection death penalty comes from Sims v. State, which indicated that the lethal injection death penalty was carried out by first administering sodium thiopental , an anesthetic , then pancuronium bromide , which paralyzes the lungs , and followed lastly by potassium chloride , which inflicts cardiac arrest .

Lower court proceedings

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On November 29, 2005, Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed a warrant for Hill's execution, which was to be carried out on January 24, 2006. Upon the signing of his death warrant, Hill requested information from the Department of Corrections regarding the specific methods by which lethal injection were carried out. Sims v. State permitted the Florida Department of Corrections to change its procedures for carrying out the lethal injection death penalty as it saw fit, and Hill sought to find out how those procedures had changed, if at all. The Florida Department of Corrections refused to comply with Hill's request.

Florida state courts

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Because the information in Sims v. State seemed to suggest the possibility of causing great bodily harm, Hill filed, on December 15, 2005, a petition for postconviction relief in the state of Florida and requested an evidentiary hearing to investigate whether or not the state's lethal injection death penalty did, in fact, cause bodily harm. The Circuit Court for Escambia County denied Hill's motions for postconviction relief and for an evidentiary hearing. Hill then appealed to the Florida Supreme Court on January 3, 2006. On January 17, 2006, Florida's High Court affirmed.

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

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Three days later, on January 20, Hill filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of [Florida](https://en.wikipe

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