Ángel Nieves Díaz

Ángel Nieves Díaz (August 31, 1951 – December 13, 2006) was an American convict from the US territory of Puerto Rico who was executed by lethal injection by the State of Florida.^[1] Nieves Díaz was convicted for shooting and killing the manager of a strip club in 1979.^[2] He maintained his innocence until his death.^[3]

Biography

Youth and early crimes

Nieves Diaz was born in Puerto Rico, and became involved in the world of crime and drugs, going by the nickname Papo la Muerte.

Crime and conviction

On December 29, 1979, Nieves Díaz and two friends, Angel Toro and another yet-unidentified man, robbed the Velvet Swing Lounge, a strip club in Florida. During the robbery, Joseph Nagy, the manager, was shot to death. There were no eyewitnesses because most of the employees and patrons were locked in a public restroom.^[4]

In 1983, Nieves Díaz's girlfriend at the time told the police that he was involved. In 1986, he was tried and convicted. He claimed, however, that Toro committed the crime. Finally the jury sentenced him to death by an 8-4 vote. Nieves Díaz was found guilty of the charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, attempted robbery, and felon in possession of a firearm.

The testimony of a fellow inmate of Dade County, Ralph Gajus, was also crucial on Díaz conviction and sentence. In 1984, Gajus testified that Nieves Díaz had confessed in his cell that he had shot Nagy. This was despite the fact that Nieves Díaz hardly spoke English and Gajus understood no Spanish. Still, his testimony was taken in consideration. The conviction was largely dependent on cellmate Gajus's testimony.^[5]

Later, one of Nieves Díaz's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to consider a sworn declaration of Gajus taken more recently in which he confessed he lied in his initial declaration. Gajus was allegedly angry with Nieves Díaz for having been left out of an escape attempt earlier and the police allegedly promised to help Gajus with his case.^[6]

Execution

In 2006, Nieves Díaz's last appeal was denied. As the date of the execution came closer, the case was again brought to the public knowledge. On November 28, 2006, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá asked the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, for clemency in the case. The governor voiced concerns about: (1) the fairness of the trial – Diaz, who spoke almost no English and whose competency was in question, represented himself at trial, (2) the recanted testimony of the key prosecution witness – a jailhouse snitch who later said he lied at trial and (3) the disproportionate sentence – the other robber got a jail sentence.^[7]

On December 13, 2006, Nieves Díaz was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. He did not order a last meal, but was served a prison menu of shredded turkey with taco seasoning, shredded cheese, rice, pinto beans, tortilla shells, apple crisp, and iced tea. He also refused this meal. His final statement was: "The state of Florida is killing an innocent person. The state of Florida is committing a crime, because I am innocent. The death penalty is not only a form of vengeance, but also a cowardly act by humans. I'm sorry for what is happening to me and my family who have been put through this."^[8] A great amount of controversy surrounded the execution because, contrary to the usual practices, Nieves Díaz needed an additional dose of drugs to be executed. The whole process took approximately an hour as opposed to the usual 7.5 minutes. The family declared the procedure a botched execution.^[9]

Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections, said that Nieves Díaz did not feel any pain and that a liver condition was the cause of the delay, but the family then denied that Nieves Díaz suffered any such condition.^[10] A further investigation concluded that there was negligence in the placement of the needles in Nieves Díaz's arms, where the needle went through the vein without the drugs entering the bloodstream which prevented the drugs from fully reaching his organs.^[11] The drugs were injected into soft tissue after going through the vein, lengthening the moment before death.^[12] As a result of this, then-governor Jeb Bush postponed all other pending executions until further notice.^[13] However, on July 18, 2007, the new governor, Charlie Crist, lifted the ban by signing a death warrant, authorizing execution of Mark Dean Schwab.^[14]

In 2014 The New Republic published photographs of the botched execution, showing discoloration on the prisoner's arms.^[15]

See also

• List of individuals executed in Florida
• Capital punishment in the United States

Botched executions:

• Clayton Lockett

References

External links

• Death row killer grimaced during unusually long execution, at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 January 2007) December 15, 2006. CNN. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
• Execution of Florida Inmate Takes 34 minutes (AP)
• Larga la agonía del reo on El Nuevo Día (Spanish)
• Ejecutan a un boricua on La Opinión (Spanish)
• Victoria judicial para condenado boricua on Univision (Spanish)
• Gobernador pide clemencia para boricua condenado a pena de muerte on Televicentro de Puerto Rico (Spanish)
• Ejecutado puertorriqueño convicto por asesinato en Florida on Terra.com (Spanish)
• Death row inmate Angel Diaz set to die for slaying of topless bar manager on CNN
• Botched execution likely painful, doctors say. MSNBC (2006-12-16). Retrieved on 2007-11-14.
• Inmate Release Information Detail - Inmate 101061. Florida Department of Corrections. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.