Florida executed Melvin Trotter on Tuesday for the 1986 murder of Virgie Langford. The Supreme Court refused to halt the execution. No justices dissented. 

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has long shined a light on death penalty problems, still used the case to express her concerns with how the state carries out the ultimate punishment. 

Trotter argued there was too great a risk that Florida would bungle its lethal injection procedure and violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Sotomayor said he didn’t show enough evidence on that score to satisfy the strict test laid out by the court’s Republican-appointed majority.

“Even so, the record to date is troubling,” the Obama appointee wrote in a statement accompanying the denial of Trotter’s appeal. 

That record, Sotomayor wrote, “reflects at least the possibility that recent Florida executions have involved — in addition to expired drugs — incorrect drug doses, the use of nonprotocol drugs, and recordkeeping lapses that could mask yet additional failings.” 

The problem, she wrote, is that the state’s high court doesn’t let inmates examine the records that could let them prove their constitutional claims.

“In doing so, the Florida Supreme Court appears to be placing prisoners in a Catch-22,” she wrote, explaining the no-win situation for inmates who can’t prove their claims because they can’t gather the necessary information to do so.  

“Individuals seeking to challenge the method of their execution should not have to guess at whether the State is, or is not, following its execution protocol,” Sotomayor wrote, adding that the state doesn’t have a legitimate interest in secrecy, and transparency would instill confidence “for everyone — prisoners, the courts, and the public alike.”

That is, if the state protocol is being followed.

“If it is not, then secrecy is intolerable, and disclosure of the relevant records is indispensable for determining whether the lapses at issue are likely to lead to an Eighth Amendment violation,” she wrote, concluding that Florida’s secrecy “undermines both the integrity of its own execution process and, potentially, this Court’s ability to ensure the State’s compliance with its constitutional obligations.”

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