Florida Death Row Inmate Requests Electric Chair

Florida State Prison’s three-legged electric chair has stood idle since 1999 when a botched execution prompted the Legislature to approve the use of lethal injections.

The oak chair, built by prison personnel in 1998, may once again see use after the Florida Department of Corrections received an unusual request from a Death Row inmate.

Wayne Doty, 42, has asked the state to carry out his death sentence by electric chair. The Plant City man was serving a life sentence on a first-degree murder conviction when he killed another inmate. Doty pleaded guilty to the second offense and represented himself in court. The sentence handed down in 2013 was death.

Doty has now filed an official request with the circuit court in Bradford County in regard to that sentence. Rather than ask for an appeal, he’s asking that Florida’s electric chair, long dubbed “Ol’ Sparky,” be fired up once more on his behalf.

In the request, Doty waived his rights to all appeals and explained that he wanted the execution carried out by electrocution because of “all the controversy over the method (of) lethal injection,” court documents indicate.

In addition, he requested an expedient delivery of the sentence and says the intent is to bring “peace to the victims’ families, as well as my spiritual freedom.”

The request is currently under review by the Department of Corrections, agency spokesman McKinley Lewis told Patch.

How soon a decision in the case will be made remains unclear, Lewis said. It also remains unclear how soon Doty might be executed.

“Until his death warrant is signed, he will not be executed,” Lewis said, referring to the need for Gov. Rick Scott’s signature on a warrant first.

While Doty has waived his rights to appeals and wrote in court documents that he wants to see expediency in the delivery of the sentence, appeals may still be filed on his behalf by outside parties, Lewis explained.

Doty’s death sentence conviction stems from the 2011 slaying of Xavier Rodriquez. Doty and Rodriguez were both prisoners at Florida State Prison at the time. The incident unfolded after Rodriquez allegedly stole cigarettes from Doty, prompting retaliation. Rodriquez was stabbed multiple times with a homemade knife.

Doty, who worked as a runner at the prison, accepted full responsibility for the death. During the subsequent trial, Doty entered a guilty plea and chose to serve as his own legal counsel.

The “legal controversy” Doty referenced in regard to lethal injection involves lawsuits that had been filed alleging the method is cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has upheld the method’s use. While executions in Florida had largely been on hold awaiting that determination the state of Florida has an execution scheduled for next week. Jerry Correll is set to die by injection on Thursday following convictions in the deaths of four people from the Orlando area.

To find out more about executions in Florida, visit the department of corrections online.

Photo of Wayne Doty courtesy of the Florida Department of Corrections