Fla. man executed amid injection controversy

Manuel Valle (AP Photo/Florida Department of Corrections)

(CBS/AP)

STARKE, Fla. - A Florida man convicted of killing a police officer during a traffic stop 33 years ago has been executed at the Florida State Prison.

The governor's office said Manuel Valle was pronounced dead at 7:14 p.m. Wednesday. He was the first Florida prisoner to be executed with a new mix of lethal drugs.

Valle fatally shot Coral Gables officer Louis Pena in 1978. He also shot fellow officer Gary Spell, who was saved by his bulletproof vest.

There was some controversy over the drugs used in the lethal injection used to carry out the execution.

The Miami Herald reports that "Valle was the first Florida inmate executed using pentobarbital as part of the lethal injection. The state changed its drug protocol earlier this year to include the sedative, which is intended to knock the inmate unconscious. Two more drugs paralyze him and then stop his heart. Florida used to use a different anesthetic, sodium thiopental, in its lethal injections. But the company that made the drug discontinued its production because it did not want the drug used for executions. The Danish manufacturer of pentobarbital, Lundbeck, has also asked Florida to refrain from using its product in lethal injections."

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Florida's execution is the latest of a series in the South, including the Sept. 21 execution of Troy Davis in Georgia for a policeman's shooting and the Texas execution that day of a white supremacist for a black man's dragging death. Alabama executed a man last week for a 1994 shooting death.

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by workerdroid September 29, 2011 10:04 AM EDT

There is nothing so insufferable as a self rightous liberal. How can anyone justify a 33 year span between crime and punishment?

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by legalbutnotjust September 29, 2011 5:26 PM EDT: Nobody can, but that is not a substantial argument for or against the death penalty. I do not peronally support sentences of death, nor executions to be carried out. I don't care who killed who or how many or what the case may be. If someone wants the murderer of their loved one killed, let them take care of it; this kind of killing isn't the work that our government needs to be doing for its citizens. And when individuals in society realize that taking another life is wrong under such circumstances, so too will they realize the killing business isn't for them either.

People who need or want to see the blood of another human being shed can discover such actions in so many other innumerable ways, i.e. war, armed conflict, etc. Want to kill and have such actions of yours deemed 'legal,' sign up for something state-sanctioned that licenses you- you the individual and not your country- to kill; there are lots of choices out there.

On that note, I am in favor of no death penalty. Most in our nation perhaps are, but I'm not. In the same breath however, I am even more opposed to this business of death row inmates lingering on the row for these ridiculous durations. As long as there exists a death penalty here, this so-called justice should never take decades to dispense.

Besides, who would want to spend the rest of their life in a max prison? No rational person with any kind of true spirit living inside themself can find that grim of a fate worse than death, especially in a nation like ours, the greatest nation the world has ever seen. The greatest land of basic human oppportunity, in other words.

Except maybe for those who are already about to die for some other reason anyway, soon after they are landed in prison, who'd want to stay 'alive' like that? Who may think death is the harder way to go- especially now, with these relatively painless means and methods as needles and sedatives, are gutless shells. No soul.

Life without the possibility of parole is no life at all, and for the murderers who are indeed guilty of the crimes that gave them such a destiny, I say may their supreme savior have mercy on their souls. Souls that probably had no real spirit for living, attached to life to begin with. In the end, the death penalty is for the disconnected, unless, conceptually, being disconnected means the willingness to accept something in death, you couldn't stomach taking in life.


by credibility2 September 29, 2011 9:45 AM EDT: Wonder were all the bleeding hearts have been all this time trying to save this murderer. I guess those types are selective in which murderers they shed tears for...This guy didn't care about his victim and how he died, and neither should anyone care about this guy and how he was finally given his justice. Even what he received was too merciful. I hope the victim's family found some sense of justice and relief that the murderer of their loved one finally got what he deserved.; Reply to this comment

by misands September 29, 2011 9:34 AM EDT

I see the lynch mob is up bright and early this morning, mindlessly banging their keyboards with their fists and foreheads.

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by guyfrompa46 September 29, 2011 1:14 PM EDT: Oh you mean the ones that waited 33 years for this scumbag to be sent to hell.... You're an idiot


by taxedmore September 29, 2011 9:09 AM EDT: The taxpayers paid for that scum bag for 33 years - talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Sorry, not so unusual. The taxpayers get screwed for many years for every one of these cases.; Reply to this comment


by 636anton33 September 29, 2011 8:19 AM EDT: This one is way over due!; Reply to this comment

by guyfrompa46 September 29, 2011 7:15 AM EDT

33 years? Really? ***.. This is ridicu;ous. He should have been killed immediately

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by themanfrombrum September 29, 2011 9:03 AM EDT: Would have saved him a hell of a lot of time pacing up and down in a cage.

by djseavy September 29, 2011 12:03 AM EDT

I have no sympathy for those who've been executed, assuming they were indeed guilty of the crimes they were convicted of. I am, however, against the death penalty given that too many innocent people came close to execution before being exonerated. Imagine that you're living your life, never hurt anybody, then one day you're on trial for a murder you had nothing to do with. You end up on death row, and eventually, you'll be executed. All because a zealous prosecutor and law enforcement needed to close a case and put a feather in their cap. Think that's a fantasy? Think again.

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by knucklecheese September 29, 2011 11:35 AM EDT: Don't be silly. Coming close doesn't count. The question is how many innocent people have actually BEEN executed? Maybe none (though I doubt that), but even assuming that it hasn't happened, the possibility still remains, which makes the practice unacceptable. If there was a way to know for sure, I would fully support capital punishment, but...

by bajajohn1 September 28, 2011 11:08 PM EDT

Amazingly, while discussing the death penatly during happy hour today, the Europeans and the Canadians thought the U.S. was a brutal country, a fascist state and a nation the touts human rights but murders its own for biblical reasons. The comments herein from some bear out the insensible ignorance that permeates the nation.

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by Lifeson2112 September 29, 2011 10:12 AM EDT: Biblical reason? I think not. It is removing the killer from our midst so they cannot ever kill again. There is zero chance this scumbag will ever hurt another person now. The law worked pretty well in this case. It should've happened sooner.


by tmn September 28, 2011 10:31 PM EDT: The new drug firm can do an advertising campaign featuring the slogan - "Peace and Quiet - FINALLY!" I'll handle the account.; Reply to this comment


by nehicks September 28, 2011 10:29 PM EDT: He had 33 years longer than the person he killed. Good riddance. I feel that, when given a death sentence, it should be carried out within one year; if they can't get their appeals heard, sucks to be you. The way of punishment should be how the murderer killed their victim - shot - firing squad; strangulation - hanging; drowning - drown the killer;etc. Waiting as long as this is a travesty perpetrated on the victim's family.; Reply to this comment

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