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By Michael Peltier
TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) - Florida on Wednesday executed a man convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer in 1978, the first inmate put to death since the state changed its lethal injection procedure.
Manuel Valle, 61, was pronounced dead by Department of Corrections officials at 7:14 p.m. local time, shortly after being administered a series of lethal drugs at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Valle, who spent 30 years on Florida's death row, was the first inmate executed since Republican Governor Rick Scott took office in January. Florida's governor signs the death warrant for a condemned inmate. Valle was the 37th person put to death in the U.S. this year.
His execution was delayed for about three hours on Wednesday as his attorney petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay, arguing unsuccessfully that executing Valle after three decades on death row was both cruel and unusual.
A corrections spokeswoman said Valle was served a last meal of fried chicken, white rice, garlic toast, peach cobbler and a Coke.
He did not make a final statement, but the deceased officer's wife issued one.
"Even though I believe this execution was just, I don't believe I will ever have complete closure," said Lana Pena Kemmerer.
The Cuban-born Valle was 27 when he shot and killed Coral Gables Officer Louis Pena after being pulled over for running a red light in a stolen car in April 1978.
As the officer checked the license tag, Valle retrieved a gun from the stolen vehicle and fatally shot Pena in the neck.
When a backup officer arrived, Valle shot him too. Protected by a bulletproof vest, Officer Gary Spell survived and testified at Valle's trial.
Convicted and first sentenced to death in 1981, Valle avoided execution for decades due to numerous appeals, reversals and re-hearings that wound all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This was his third death warrant.
Valle was scheduled to die on August 2, but the execution was again postponed to allow for a hearing on his concerns about the use of a new sedative by the state.
Earlier this year, Florida prison officials substituted one of the drugs used in the three-drug lethal injection protocol after its Dutch manufacturer stopped making the product to protest its use in executions.
In late August, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected arguments by Valle's attorneys that the substitution of pentobarbital into the procedure would allow their client to remain conscious, thus subjecting him to undue pain and suffering when the next two drugs were administered.
In an opinion that cleared the way for future executions using pentobarbital, the court said it found no credible evidence that administering the drug at 10 times the normal sedation dosage would allow Valle to remain conscious.
By itself, the drug is considered lethal at the dosage used by the Department of Corrections. It is followed by other medications that paralyze the lungs and cause a heart attack.
Valle was the 70th inmate executed in Florida since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 and the first since February 2010.
(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)
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