# Juan Chavez v. Florida SP Warden, etal

> Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · February 12, 2014 · 742 F.3d 1267

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9798805

## Case

- **Full name:** Juan Carlos CHAVEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FLORIDA SP WARDEN, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, John Does, Defendants-Appellees
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- **Decided:** February 12, 2014
- **Citations:** 742 F.3d 1267; 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 2700; 2014 WL 552856
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Wilson
- **Judges:** Carnes, Wilson, Martin
- **Nature of suit:** NEW
- **Cited by:** 69 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9798805

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that “[a] preliminary injunction is appropriate [only] if the movant demonstrates all of these elements: (1) a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; (2) that the preliminary injunction is necessary to prevent irreparable injury; (3) that the threatened injur…
- affirming the dismissal of Eighth Amendment challenge to Florida’s nearly identical lethal injection protocol that uses 500 mg of midazolam as the first drug
- rejecting a method-of-execution claim in part because the prisoner admitted that the relevant lethal injection drug alternatives were unavailable
- discussing the scarcity of lethal injection drugs

## Opinion text

WILSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I agree that the district court properly found that Chavez failed to demonstrate a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of his claims and is thus not entitled to a stay of his execution. Therefore, I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately to underscore that the question of whether a significant change has occurred to a state’s lethal injection protocol is a fact-intensive inquiry for which an evidentiary hearing is especially important. The district judge in this case properly conducted an evidentiary hearing and thoroughly studied the parties’ filings and exhibits and the governing legal principles. Indeed, while the district court concluded that expert anesthesiologist Dr. Lubar-sky’s testimony was ultimately speculative and insufficient to meet Chavez’s burden, nothing prevents a future inmate from presenting an anesthesiologist or expert to *1276 assert an opinion based on more conclusive and methodologically sound results. Further, in the event of a botched execution in this or a future case, such evidence may be relevant in a subsequent Eighth Amendment challenge to Florida’s execution practices.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9798805. Public record. Not legal advice.