The 1st of 11 death-row inmates with scheduled execution dates in Tennessee did not meet the executioner as planned on Oct. 7. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Sept. 25 to postpone Billy Ray Irick's execution, as he and the other 10 death-row inmates with scheduled execution dates are in the middle of a complex lawsuit against the state.
In granting Irick's motion to postpone his execution, the Tennessee Supreme Court laid out strict rules concerning time limits for appeals and motions going forward to expedite court proceedings in Davidson County Chancery Court. Irick had his execution postponed once in light of the pending lawsuit.
He was convicted of raping and murdering a 7-year-old Knoxville girl he was babysitting in 1985. As of press time, the court had not yet set another date for Irick.
The inmates scheduled for execution through 2016 are suing the state of Tennessee over a few fundamental questions: What are the identities of the execution team? What method will the state use to execute them? What drugs will be used? Who manufactures them? And have they been adequately tested?
Attorneys for the inmates also challenge the state's alternative form of execution: the electric chair. The inmates and their lawyers are calling both methods "cruel and unusual."
On Aug. 22, attorneys for the inmates changed the scope of the lawsuit because of the new Tennessee law signed by Gov. Bill Haslam that allows the state to use the electric chair as a backup if the necessary drugs for lethal injection are unavailable. On Sept. 17, Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman accepted an amendment to the lawsuit including objections to the constitutionality of using the electric chair.
Several pharmaceutical companies recently refused to sell their products, proven successful for use in executions in the past, if they were to be used in future executions.
Because of those refusals, Tennessee switched from using sodium thiopental - a deadly combo of 3 drugs - to just using pentobarbital. Before the court postponed Irick's execution, the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) said it had enough pentobarbital on hand to carry out the execution via lethal injection.
"We are confident that we will have the necessary chemicals when needed," said Neysa Taylor, a spokesperson for TDOC.
By ushering in the return of the electric chair, Haslam made Tennessee 1 of only 8 states that remain in favor of using the device.
"Prior to the new law, an inmate was only subject to the electric chair in Tennessee if they chose to be," said Kelley Henry, federal public defender in Nashville.
Lethal injection is the primary method of execution in the 32 states that still have capital punishment, but some states allow inmates the option of electrocution, hanging, firing squad or the gas chamber.
Henry said that with the change Tennessee now "stands alone as the only jurisdiction in the world to involuntarily impose the electric chair on its condemned citizens."
The lawsuit also comes as botched lethal injections across the country have at times left inmates conscious, even sometimes gasping for air for several minutes after the procedure has been performed.
Daryl Holton, who was electrocuted in Tennessee in 2007 for murdering his 3 sons and a stepdaughter in 1997, showed signs of being conscious after the 1st surge of electricity went through his body.
When Tennessee passed the law earlier this year to bring back the chair, Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said courts should anticipate some challenges as inmates got closer to their execution dates.
"There certainly have been some gruesome electrocutions in the past, and that would weigh on courts' minds," Dieter said.
The next hearing in the Davidson County Chancery Court remains to be decided, but officials said it would likely be mid-October before the next round of motions are heard.
Source: realchangenews.org, October 23, 2014