A judge on Friday blocked the state’s attempt to derail a lawsuit filed by death row inmates attacking Tennessee’s use of the electric chair.
In August, attorneys representing ten death row inmates sued the state alleging the electric chair is “cruel and unusual punishment.” The suit contends that electrocution inflicts agonizing pain and that its use should be considered torture.
The state replied by filing a motion to dismiss, a matter that was taken up during Friday’s hearing.
Assistant Attorney General Linda Kirklen argued, in part, that “this court lacks jurisdiction.” In other words, she said questioning the sentence of a criminal case should not be litigated in civil court. She noted the inmates have brought challenges to their cases in criminal court already, which have not been successful. “They have already had their day in court,” Kirklen said.
Kelley Henry, a federal public defender representing the inmates, responded that an attack on the method of execution is not the same at an attack on the conviction.
In addition, Henry pointed out that
last spring’s law establishing the electric chair as the official backup has no formal time schedule. That is, if an inmate’s method of execution is changed due to the scarcity of lethal injection drugs, the inmate might not have time to appeal.
After two-hours of deliberations, Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman took a short break before coming back with a decision: the lawsuit is aiming at the protocol of execution, not the criminal conviction, so it does fall under the state’s civil court.
After the hearing, defense attorney Henry said Bonnyman’s decision keeps the lawsuit on track, and that the substance of the suit – whether the electric chair is in fact constitutional – will be dealt with during the trial.
“Tennessee is an outlier amongst any government in the world to impose the electric chair on one of its citizens. We’re the only one that does that,” Henry said. “Our experts say that the inmate actually feels that searing, burning pain prior to death and for a substantial period of time prior to death.”
The state attorney general’s office has not responded to the heart of argument in legal filings. Instead, they have countered with procedural maneuvers.
A trial date in Davidson County Chancery Court determining whether the electric chair will continue to be an optional form of execution in Tennessee is on hold. It will be set once a case pending before the state’s supreme court is settled. This one over whether the identities of those involved in a state-sanctioned lethal injection — including the pharmacist who provides the drugs — must be publicly revealed.
For now, both methods of execution are unavailable until the lawsuits are resolved.
The last execution in Tennessee occurred in 2009. And although no executions have occurred while Gov. Bill Haslam has been in office, the attorney general’s office
requested execution dates for 10 death row inmates, the highest number of sought at once in state history.
