Mark Dean Schwab was pronounced dead at 6:15 PM EDT today, executed for the 1991 kidnapping, rape, and murder of an 11-year old boy, Junny Rios-Martinez.
Schwab, who admitted kidnapping and raping the boy, and who led police to a footlocker holding Junny’s nude body, challenged Florida’s new execution procedure, claiming it would cause him unnecessary pain and suffering.
Florida’s old lethal injection procedure was halted after the execution of Angel Diaz went awry in 2006, causing serious chemical burns to his arms.
In the new procedure, the inmate is rendered unconscious with sodium pentothal, paralyzed with pancuronium bromide, and then dispatched with potassium chloride which stops the heart.
Angel Diaz took thirty-four minutes to die in 2006. Today, Schwab passed away painlessly in twelve.