Also From Florida

Today's Lakeland Ledger reports, "State Supreme Court Sends Davis Case Back to Circuit Court in Bartow," by Suzie Schottelkotte.

The Florida Supreme Court sent the appeal of condemned murderer Eddie Wayne Davis back to the Circuit Court in Bartow on Thursday to explore again whether Davis' possible blood disorder could cause him undue suffering during his July 10 execution.

The state's high court said Davis' lawyers filed an expert medical opinion stating "that a substantial risk exists that, during the execution, Mr. Davis will suffer from extreme or excruciating pain as a result of abdominal pain, tachycardia, hypertension, nausea and vomiting."

His lawyers didn't have that medical opinion when they argued this issue before Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen two weeks ago, after Gov. Rick Scott signed Davis' death warrant.

The Supreme Court gave Jacobsen until 5 p.m. Tuesday to submit a ruling for the high court's review. Lawyers for the state and Davis will have until 5 p.m. Thursday to file their responses to that ruling, according to the Supreme Court's mandate.

Jacobsen has set a hearing for 9 a.m. Monday.

AP coverage is "Supreme Court orders hearing on lethal injection," via the Palm Beach Post.

A divided Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower court in Polk County to look into whether a Death Row inmate’s medical condition could make the state’s lethal injection protocol unconstitutional in his case.

The 5-2 ruling comes in the latest challenge to the use of midazolam hydrochloride in the state’s three-drug cocktail. The first of three injections, midazolam renders the inmate unconscious, but has been controversial since it was introduced last year.

Lawyers for Eddie Wayne Davis, 45, who is scheduled to be executed July 10, say midazolam might not work as expected on him because he suffers from a condition known as porphyria.

Earlier coverage from Florida begins with the preceding post.  Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a Missouri execution in which questions had been raised about Russell Bucklew's medical condition.