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Cop Killer's Execution Hearing Ends; Decision By Friday

MIAMI (CBS4) - A hearing in Miami to determine if a new drug approved for use in lethal injections in the state constitutes 'cruel and unusual punishment has concluded.

The hearing is on behalf of Manuel Valle, 61, who had been scheduled for execution on August 2nd for the murder of Coral Gables police officer Luis Pena 33 years ago. Florida's Supreme Court, however, issued a temporary stay after his attorneys questioned the use of the new drug, pentobarbital, in the three drug lethal cocktail.

The high court ordered Miami Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola to hold a fact-finding hearing on a change in the state's lethal injection procedure.

Pentobarbital is used to render a person unconscious. It replaced an older drug which is no longer manufactured. It has been used in other states but never in Florida.

During testimony Tuesday, Dr. David Waisel told the judge pentobarbital hasn't been sufficiently tested to ensure an inmate is unconscious before deadly drugs are administered. It therefore could lead to the inmate feeling extreme pain before death.

Waisel said use of pentobarbital "exposes the inmate to extraordinary risk" compared with the old drug, sodium thiopental. He said pentobarbital is most commonly used as a sedative and that its effectiveness in rendering a person unconscious is not well known.

"We're taking a drug that we know everything about, replacing it with a drug we know almost nothing about in terms of inducing anesthesia in otherwise healthy people," Waisel said. "If it did not work, they would feel the incredibly burning pain" of the lethal heart-stopping drug, potassium chloride."

Pentobarbital has been used in 18 executions around the country since Oklahoma first did so last year. Like sodium thiopental before it, the drug is intended to render the inmate unconscious so that no pain will be felt when two other drugs that cause death are administered.

Lawyers for Valle and other condemned prisoners have seized on the June execution in Georgia of Roy Willard Blankenship, who appeared to witnesses to grimace, jerk and mutter for several minutes after the pentobarbital was administered. Waisel said based on his interviews with witnesses at the Georgia execution, "Mr. Blankenship suffered an extremely painful execution."

Last week, a Georgia corrections officer testified in the Florida challenge that nothing seemed particularly unusual about the Blankenship execution.

Attorneys for Valle failed in an attempt to introduce an affidavit about the Blankenship case by Associated Press reporter Greg Bluestein, who witnessed the execution. The affidavit affirms that stories Bluestein wrote about Blankenship's movements during the execution accurate portrayed what he saw, but Judge Scola ruled it inadmissible as evidence.

The hearing is the end of a mission for Pena's daughter.

"He took my father. He split up our whole family and he didn't give a crap. He just didn't want to go back to jail," said Jeanane Skeen. "I was 13 years old when he was killed. My daughter is 13 years old. Now she's here with me. It would be the same thing as taking her father this time. It's a horrible thing. No one should have to go through this."

Skeen and other family members traveled from Ft. Myers to attend the hearing.

"I want everyone to know that we are not through with this case. We have been going through this for years and not giving up. We want him put to death like the jury said," said Skeen.

"It's been 33 years and we want to see justice done," said Pena's half brother Jeffrey Frau.

While some of Valle's relatives declined to comment on the drug, his daughter was very blunt in her opinion.

"I don't care how painful it is. My father went through pain. He was shot in the neck, he bled to death. He choked on his own blood. That was pain. Manuel Valle should have some pain. They're worried about pain for Manuel Valle. I don't care," said Skeen.

Judge Scola must rule on Valle's execution challenge by Friday.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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