Executions May Resume After Tennessee Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty

NASHVILLE, TN — Tennessee may resume executions following a decision by the state's Supreme Court that single-dose lethal injection is not constitutionally prohibited.

Executions have been on hold since arguments in the case, initially filed by 33 death-row inmates in Davidson County Chancery Court, in October. Tennessee has not executed a prisoner since 2009. Two of the petitioners have since died in prison.

The court's unanimous opinion, authored by Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins, says the inmates failed to prove Tennessee's current lethal injection protocol — a high-dose of pentobarbital — violates the United States and Tennessee constitutions' prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. The plaintiffs had argued that the method could cause extreme pain or "lingering death," though the court concluded the former was only likely in the case of human error, which has been held by courts not to satisfy the Eighth Amendment prohibition provided that such error is an "accident with no suggestion of malevolence."

Further, past rulings have asserted that Eighth Amendment death penalty method appeals must not only show evidence of high risk of pain or lingering death but must also present an alternative method of execution, which the petitioners in this case failed to do.

Tennessee's last execution was of Cecil Johnson in December 2009. Johnson was convicted of killing three people during a robbery in 1980. The state has executed six people since 2000. The state did not execute anyone between 1961 and 2000.

Image by Thomas R Machnitzki, used under GNU Free Documentation License