Tallahassee - Florida's electric chair may be on its last legs after a recent blood-soaked spectacle propelled the state's instrument of death into the international spotlight again.
Two weeks after blood flowed from the nose of the man most recently executed in the chair, state officials, lawmakers and death penalty opponents say the incident has sparked renewed interest in changing the way Florida metes out its ultimate punishment.
In March 1997, flames shot from the head of Pedro Medina, whose fiery death was blamed on a defective sponge used to conduct electricity. "The electric chair continues to be the focal point that defence attorneys representing Death Row inmates use to delay executions," said state senator Mr Ron Klein, a Democrat and death penalty supporter. "Lethal injection is a way of taking this issue out of the mix," he says.
It is felt that the use of lethal injection could make things harder for death penalty opponents as citizens become less outraged by what is seen by some as a clinical procedure.
"Personally, the bloodier and gorier it is, the more people will be made aware of it," said Mr Abraham Bonowitz, president of the Florida-based Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.