Delay to Florida lethal injection

Critics question whether the cocktail of drugs used causes suffering

A US court has stayed the execution of a man in Florida pending a ruling by the US Supreme Court on whether the use of lethal injections is legal.

Mark Dean Schwab, convicted in 1992 of raping and murdering an 11-year-old boy, was due for execution on Thursday.

The Supreme Court is considering a case brought by two inmates in Kentucky who argue the lethal injection drugs may cause pain and so are unconstitutional.

Florida uses the same cocktail of drugs as is challenged in the Kentucky case.

Federal Judge Anne Corway, in Miami, ruled Schwab's execution must be stayed "for a relatively short time until the Supreme Court renders its judgement".

The Kentucky case hinges on the argument that the drugs used in lethal injection violate a constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment".

The standard method is a combination of three chemicals - one which makes the inmate unconscious, another that paralyses all muscles except the heart, and a final drug which stops the heart, causing death.

Schwab's execution was the first to be scheduled in Florida since the botched lethal injection of Angel Diaz last December.

He was left grimacing for more than 30 minutes after the drugs missed his vein, prompting a seven-month moratorium while the process was reviewed.