Medina's arrest, a knife was found in the vehicle. Medina was convicted of first-degree murder and auto theft. The jury, by a ten-to-two vote, recommended the death penalty for the murder conviction. The trial court found two aggravating circumstances and a single mitigating circumstance. The court found the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstance and sentenced Medina to death. This Court affirmed Medina's convictions and sentences. (Medina v. State, 466 So.2d 1046 (Fla. 1985)). He was sent to death row at Florida State Prison near the town of Starke in 1982. Medina's last words before being executed on March 25, 1997, were, "I am still innocent." During the administration of electric current, the electric chair known as "Old Sparky" malfunctioned, causing flames to shoot out of Medina's head. Controversy In 1999, the state of Florida heard a petition from Thomas Harrison Provenzano, another death row inmate, that argued that the electric chair was a "cruel and unusual punishment". During the proceedings, Rev. Glen Dickson, Medina's pastor, testified he saw the flames rising out of Medina's head, smelled an acrid smell and saw Medina take three labored breaths after the electric current to the chair had been turned off and the strap holding him in it had been loosened. Patricia McCusker, Assistant Superintendent of the Work Camp at Florida State Prison, also testified. She said she saw Medina's left hand tighten as the current was being applied. She corroborated Dickson's observation of smoke and flames coming from Medina's head and a smell, which she said was a burning smell. McCusker claimed she also saw movements in Medina's chest after the current had been turned off, but claimed it was contractions of the chest muscle which did not imply breathing. An autopsy found that Medina's death was instantaneous due to massive depolarization of the brain and brain stem when the first jolt of electricity surged through Medina's body. A doctor described it as like "turning the lights off". A neurologist testified that the apparent breathing movements were likely caused by the last vestiges of survival in the brain stem after the brain itself had died. A circuit court judge ruled that the flaws in the execution had been from "unintentional human error" rather than any faults in the electric chair's "apparatus, equipment, and electrical circuitry," though he did recommend that the lead leg piece be replaced with a more conductive brass electrode.