America's Worst Execution: Faulty Electric Chair Left Murderer in Agony as His Body Burst Into Flames — As Witness Claims 'He Was Still Alive When His Head Was on Fire'
Pedro Medina's nightmare execution changed ended Florida's electric chair punishment.
July 7 2026, Published 4:30 p.m. ET
The botched execution of Pedro Medina is still fresh in the minds of those involved, RadarOnline.com can reveal, including the warden in charge.
Ron McAndrew had a front-row seat to Medina's torturous final moments in 1997 at the Florida state prison, a nightmare that led to his opposition to capital punishment following America's worst execution.
Retired Warden: 'We Burned Him Alive'
Pedro Medina's execution was botched, as he 'burned alive.'
"We didn't execute him – we burned him alive," McAndrew told the Daily Mail of Medina's slow death due to a faulty electric chair, nicknamed "Old Sparky."
Medina was on death row after he murdered his elementary school teacher neighbor, Dorothy James, in 1982. He had left her to die inside her Orlando apartment and had stolen her car after stabbing her multiple times. He would eventually get busted while driving James' vehicle.
Despite the vicious crime, the murderer's end was even too much for McAndrew to witness.
He recalled, "He caught fire. His body was twisting, and he was fighting the straps. It was obvious he was still alive when his head was on fire. It was a horrible way to kill somebody."
Murderer Pedro Medina's Final Words
The warden in charge, Ron McAndrew, recalled the 'horrible' scene.
According to the retired warden, flames shot from Medina's head while he was fried on the chair. It lasted between 6 and 10 seconds, but was enough to fill the room with smoke.
McAndrew recalled watching Medina, who claimed he was "still innocent," before being executed, suffer for at least four minutes while his body burned before dying.
McAndrew also noted the "putrid" smell that was left behind by Medina following his death.
"The smell stuck to everything," McAndrew said. "I had to have that room entirely scrubbed, all the walls and the floor and the electric chair itself; it all had something that was in the air stuck to it. I thought I could never get clean after that."
A Purposeful Act?
Medina's torture lasted for four minutes.
While most believed the failed execution was simply a horrible accident, McAndrew theorized the chair may have been manipulated beforehand, as he claimed to have seen two electricians preparing for the execution, with one retrieving a saline-soaked sponge, which is used to help guide the current directly to the prisoner's brain.
"I saw one of the men dip down into the bucket of the saline solution, and when he got the sponge, he squeezed it rather tightly," McAndrew claimed. When asked if the electrician may have intentionally botched the preparation, McAndrew responded, "There have been a lot of questions about what happened there."
Following the horrific death of Medina, the electric chair was ousted in Florida and replaced with lethal injection, as McAndrew completely changed his stance on the death penalty.
"'Executions have a way of staying with you," he made clear. "... It was very easy for me to learn that the most horrible punishment is actually locking someone in a cage for the rest of their lives.
'Old Sparky' History
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Medina (not pictured) was executed after being convicted of killing a teacher.
"They call it an execution, but I can assure you it is not an execution – it is a premeditated, ceremonial, political killing. Nothing more, nothing less."
The ousted electric chair, which was first used in 1923, killed 239 other inmates before Medina, including serial killer Ted Bundy. Media, the 240th person, was the final one.
