STARKE, Fla. – A Florida Corrections official says authorities have no indication an inmate's blood-curdling scream and repeated shouts of "murderers!" as he was being put to death were caused by the lethal injection.
Forty-seven-year-old inmate Eric Scott Branch was put to death Thursday evening at Florida State Prison, thrashing about on a gurney as he screamed and yelled. Branch had been sentenced to die for the 1993 rape and killing of a 21-year-old college student, Susan Morris.
Asked later whether Branch's scream could have been caused by the lethal drugs, Department Corrections spokeswoman Michelle Glady said "there was no indication" that the dramatic moments were caused by the execution procedure.
She says that conclusion had been confirmed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
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Associated Press writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this story
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