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Man put to death using new lethal injection for racist murder

Mark Asay took 10 minutes to die.

ASAY Mark Asay AP AP

A MAN HAS been put to death with an anesthetic never used before in a US lethal injection, carrying out its first execution in more than 18 months on an inmate convicted of two racially motivated murders.

Authorities said 53-year-old Mark Asay, the first white man executed in Florida for the killing of a black man, was pronounced dead at 6.22 pm yesterday at the state prison in Starke.

Asay received a three-drug injection that began with the anesthetic, etomidate.
Though approved by the Florida Supreme Court, etomidate has been criticised by some as being unproven in an execution.

Etomidate replaced midazolam, which became harder to acquire after many drug companies began refusing to provide it for executions.

Prosecutors say Asay made racist comments in the 1987 fatal shooting of a 34-year-old black man, Robert Lee Booker. Asay also was convicted of the 1987 murder of 26-year-old Robert McDowell, who was mixed race, white and Hispanic. Asay had hired McDowell, who was dressed as a woman, as a prostitute, and killed him after learning his true gender, prosecutors said.

Asay was asked whether he wanted to make a final statement. “No sir, I do not. Thank you,” he replied.

The execution protocol began at 6.10pm. About a minute after the first drug was administered, Asay’s feet jerked slightly and his mouth opened. A minute or two later he was motionless and subsequently was pronounced dead by a doctor.

EXECUTIONS FLORIDA How the new method works. AP AP

Michelle Glady, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said there was no complication in the procedure and that Asay did not speak during it.

The execution was Florida’s first since the US Supreme Court halted the practice in the state after finding its method for sentencing people to death to be unconstitutional. The high court earlier had rejected Asay’s final appeal without comment.

Asay was the first white man to be executed in Florida for killing a black man. At least 20 black men have been executed for killing white victims since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center.

A total of 92 Florida inmates had been executed previously in that time period.
The inmate’s spiritual adviser, Norman Smith of Cavalry Chapel in Melbourne, Florida, spent two hours with Asay before his execution.

He said he admitted spouting racial epithets prior to Booker’s murder, but said he was drunk and angry, not a racist.
“Until I heard that I would’ve never known that this man was tagged as a racist,” said Smith, who is black. Asay, he added, was ready and not conflicted as the execution hour approached.

Etomidate is the first of three drugs administered in Florida’s new execution mixture. It’s followed by rocuronium bromide, a paralytic, and finally, potassium acetate, which stops the heart. It is Florida’s first time using potassium acetate too, which was used in a 2015 execution in Oklahoma by mistake, but has not been used elsewhere, a death penalty expert said.

State corrections officials have defended the choice of etomidate, saying it has been reviewed. The corrections department refused to answer questions from The Associated Press about how it chose etomidate.

Doctors hired by Asay’s attorneys raised questions about etomidate in court declarations, saying there are cases where it had caused pain along with involuntary writhing in patients.

But in its opinion allowing the drug to be used, the state’s high court said earlier this month that four expert witnesses demonstrated that Asay “is at small risk of mild to moderate pain”.

Executions in Florida were put on hold for 18 months after the Supreme Court ruled that the old system was unconstitutional because it gave judges, not juries, the power to decide.

Since then, Florida’s legislature passed a law requiring a unanimous jury for death penalty recommendations.
In Asay’s case, jurors recommended death for both murder counts by a 9-3 vote. Even though the new law requires unanimity, Florida’s high court ruled that the US Supreme Court’s ruling did not apply to older cases.

Asay was the 24th inmate executed since Governor Rick Scott has taken office, the most under any governor in Florida history.

Read: Bouncer who was told all Romanians ‘are thieves and liars’ wins €20k in discrimination case >

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    Mute Lisa Jones
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:21 AM

    Just imagine if somehow the Dart could miraculously make it’s way Dublin Airport

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    Mute Zack Twamley
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    Jul 25th 2022, 10:56 AM

    @Lisa Jones: this. I don’t understand why it hasn’t happened, when we’re virtually the only European capital without one.

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    Mute Ajax Penumbra
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    Jul 25th 2022, 12:08 PM

    @Zack Twamley: No we’re not. Not even virtually.

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    Mute Tony Stanley
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    Jul 25th 2022, 12:16 PM

    @Ajax Penumbra: well we are one of the few cities with an airport of (in normal times) such high demand without a rail connection.

    37
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    Mute Paul Maguire
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:24 AM

    There are other counties outside of Dublin, that need an upgrade of Rail services… As we are being constantly told by the Green Party to leave our cars at home and take public transport as we seem most of the public transport is non-existent in the rural areas

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Jul 25th 2022, 10:12 AM

    @Paul Maguire: yep, Dublin Dublin Dublin.

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    Mute Ciaran O'Mara
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    Jul 25th 2022, 10:23 AM

    @Paul Maguire: we need to start at the beginning. Electrifying the railway out to Maynooth and Dunboyne, big population centres, is a first step. It doesn’t preclude other developments.

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    Mute Nicholas McMurry
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:30 AM

    @Paul Maguire: They have opened the rail link from Cork to Midleton and I think more stations on the Cork network are in the pipeline but Limerick has huge potential for commuter rail, including a possible link to Shannon, Galway network should be extended to Tuam.

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    Mute Tomo
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:58 AM

    @Ciaran O’Mara: Think Navan and Naas are much much larger population centres than Maynooth and Dunboyne.

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    Mute Tony Stanley
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    Jul 25th 2022, 12:21 PM

    @Paul Maguire: this might shock you.

    For heavy rail infrastructure, Dublin has had nothing but piecemeal development for the last few decades. The last major change was the extension of the dart to Malahide and Greystones which only added a few extra miles. Same with Dunboyne. Other then that we’ve had the existing infrastructure with a few capacity enhancements.

    Outside of Dublin however there has been lots of development including the doubling of track on the cork line, extension of commuter services to Middleton, the western rail corridor and a significant upgrade to the intercity and regional rail stock serving communities throughout the country.

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    Mute Séan Ó Nuanáin
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:10 AM

    Still nothing for Navan town?

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    Mute Ed Cooper
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:46 AM

    @Séan Ó Nuanáin: and to be fair it wouldnt take that much to run it as far as Navan. Shoud be prioritised.

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    Mute Daniel Muldoon
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    Jul 25th 2022, 12:58 PM

    @Séan Ó Nuanáin: I actually emailed the Department of Transport about getting the train station up and running and i was told that it was not financially viable.

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    Mute Scorcher Bois Gris
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    Jul 25th 2022, 1:26 PM

    @Daniel Muldoon: fair play to you for being proactive at least!

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    Mute Diar O Doc
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:22 AM

    What about a DART+ North West to Donegal

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    Mute Daniel Muldoon
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    Jul 25th 2022, 1:01 PM

    @Diar O Doc: Anything north west of Dublin would be nice but i do agree they should be running a line all the way to Donegal. I live in Cavan and our only options are car or bus (If you can find one where you are going).

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    Mute Luan Willis
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    Jul 25th 2022, 2:47 PM

    @Diar O Doc: Unfortunately the population density outside of the greater Dublin area does not support a high capacity rail traffic network.

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    Mute James Heffernan
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    Jul 25th 2022, 10:08 AM

    Covering all the same stations that are already catered for (Maynooth line)..Struggling to see the huge advantages of this..

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    Mute Ciaran O'Mara
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:16 AM

    @James Heffernan: twice the number of trains, bigger trains, electric not diesel, no level crossings, much safer and more efficient signaling, inter-run wth existing dart.

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    Mute James Heffernan
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:37 AM

    @Ciaran O’Mara: Sounds like a lot of nothing to me..When taking into account other services around the country the service what we have at the moment is grand..It’s not like we are going from a grand service to a state of the art service, we are going from a grand service to something a small bit better. Not something to get overly excited over..

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    Mute James Heffernan
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:38 AM

    @Ciaran O’Mara: Thanks for highlighting the changes though.

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    Mute Daniel Muldoon
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    Jul 25th 2022, 1:02 PM

    @James Heffernan: Its just to give them good press to make it look like they are actually doing something.

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    Mute dreiglaser
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:45 AM

    40km of electricity poles and one new station. They would call that a day’s work in China or Japan.

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    Mute Jon Kelly
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    Jul 25th 2022, 10:14 AM

    “End to commuting and congestion”? Have you ever been on a Dart or train in the morning? Stacked tins of sardines have more personal space

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    Mute Mark McCormack
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:48 AM

    Its about time they upgraded those lines. The only problem is they are talking about a depot west of Maynooth which means the depot itself will be in Kilcock. So the town of Kilcock will have to deal with all the negetives of a depot and receive none of the positives. I dont see why they cannot provide the service from Kilcock. The population of that town has doubled in the last 10 years and still there is nothing being built in the town only more housing estates. Theres no longer room in the schools there for kids. Why is Ireland so backwards.

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    Mute dreiglaser
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    Jul 25th 2022, 6:34 PM

    @Mark McCormack: then the depot would have to be other side of Kilcock and someone from Enfield would be saying what you’re saying now.

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    Mute Hugh Mc Donnell
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    Jul 25th 2022, 10:57 AM

    So is navan getting left out again

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    Mute Christine Downey
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    Jul 26th 2022, 2:55 PM

    @Hugh Mc Donnell: and Wicklow/Arklow.

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    Mute Paul Maguire
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:24 AM

    There are other counties outside of Dublin, that need an upgrade of Rail services… As we are being constantly told by the Green Party to leave ourselves at home and take public transport as we seem most off the public transport is non-existent in the rural areas

    31
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    Mute Terri MacDonald
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:30 AM

    Coolmine and Clonsilla stations are useless to a large section of D15 unless you have a car. Only bus that even goes near them is the 39 and that’s not a frequent service (and is not timed to work with the train timetable) I’m all for this, but would like to be able to actually get to a train station!

    29
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    Mute joe oneill
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:51 AM

    I’ll certainly be attending the next FFG golf day,best to get in early…..

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    Mute Alan Dignam
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:35 AM

    What about the level crossings at Coolmine and Clonsilla to mention just two, are they going to close them off ???. Ashtown another one.

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    Mute Bri Lyons
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:51 AM

    @Alan Dignam: Ashton level crossing being replaced with tunnel … Coolmine level crossing being kept

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    Mute Reuben Gray
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    Jul 25th 2022, 9:52 AM

    @Alan Dignam: Ashtown for sure is being re-done with new road layout and bridge so there won’t be a level crossing.

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    Mute Max Bailey
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    Jul 25th 2022, 1:44 PM

    @Alan Dignam: it says six level crossings to close so that would be all of them to maynooth. (Ashtown, coolmine, porterstown, clonsilla, barberstown and blakestown.)

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    Mute Susan O'flaherty
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    Jul 25th 2022, 11:49 AM

    what about metro.

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    Mute dreiglaser
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    Jul 25th 2022, 6:36 PM

    @Susan O’flaherty: what about it? This is for the DART?

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    Mute Martin Forde
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    Jul 25th 2022, 3:52 PM

    Said the same thing 20 years ago about Drogheda an Dundalk, population of over 100,000 people still waiting.

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    Mute John Kelly
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    Jul 25th 2022, 3:22 PM

    Luas to Tallaght spends miles running along the Grand Canal and the up the middle of the Naas Road and then skirts around Kingswood. So I wouldn’t necessarily assume the majority of people would live beside a new track anyway

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    Mute Karl Phillips
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    Jul 25th 2022, 8:36 PM

    Might try sorting out what we have at present, packed rolling stock and cannot open the windows. Third World.

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 25th 2022, 8:34 PM

    There used to be a line from Tullow to Dublin that had a station at the end of the road. Incredible to think that you could live in the countryside and not need a car.

    5
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