Friday, August 28, 2015

Tennessee judge rules state's lethal injection method constitutional

Yesterday, I wrote about the US District Court judge for the Southern District of Mississippi who issued a an order blocking the use of two drugs for lethal injections in that state.
Today I write about the opposite outcome in a neighboring state.
This week a Tennessee judge ruled that the state's use of lethal injections for the execution of death row inmates is constitutional. According to Jurist, the decision by a Davidson County judge came in answer to a lawsuit brought by 33 death row inmates and their attorneys. According to the judge, plaintiffs failed to prove  that the state's execution practice, in which only the drug compounded pentobarbital is used, amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, reported The Tennessean.
The ruling cited the testimony of experts who stated at trial that the drug was used successfully in other states, as well as the US Supreme Court's decision in Baze v. Rees, to support the set standard that a single error or mishandled execution does not mean that an Eighth Amendment violation has occurred. Tennessee has not executed a prisoner since 2009.
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