Tennessee latest US state to suspend death sentences

[Jahness]

Tennessee latest US state to suspend
death sentences

Fri Feb 2, 4:02 PM ET

Tennessee has become the latest US state to halt executions of death sentences amid rising concerns about lethal injection procedures.

Only three states - Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia - now have executions scheduled in the coming months, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Tennessee was the fifth state to halt executions since a botched execution in Florida in December where prisoner Angel Diaz grimaced in pain and gasped for breath for 34 minutes before dying, because needles administering the lethal drugs were pushed in too far and delivered the doses into his muscles rather than his veins.

Florida's governor responded with a moratorium and courts in North Carolina, California and Ohio have also challenged the procedure in recent weeks.

The governor of Tennessee suspended executions for 90 days on Thursday as the state reviewed and updated the procedures used in lethal injections.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen reiterated his support for the death penalty when announcing the reprieve but said it was necessary to ensure that executions are carried out responsibly.

"Deficiencies with our written procedures that raise concerns that they are not adequate to preclude mistakes in the future" were discovered while the government was preparing for a federal lawsuit aimed at halting lethal injections, he said.

Bredesen said he was "convinced" that there were no difficulties in the two executions Tennessee has carried out since it reinstated the death penalty.

The executive order granted a reprieve to four inmates who were scheduled to be executed in the coming weeks.

Conceived to inflict a speedy, painless and bloodless death, the lethal injection process involves the administration of three drugs: the first to make the condemned person unconscious, the second to paralyze him and the third to stop his heart.

If given correctly, the execution goes as planned. But if the first drug is administered badly, the other two become extremely painful to the person being executed.

These concerns caused a federal judge in California to order executions halted until prison authorities could provide assurances that the method of execution will be applied in a manner conforming to the US Constitution ban on "cruel and unusual punishments."

Behind this challenge, too, are refusals of medical professionals and their associations to take part in executions.

The sum effect of the trend is clear. The 53 executions carried out last year was the lowest in a decade. And only 114 people were sentenced to death last year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, the lowest level since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976.

That statistic represents the increasing unwillingness of juries to sentence convicts to death, in the wake of a sharp rise during the 1990s of revelations of judicial and laboratory errors in death penalty cases, as well as improved evidence, especially DNA testing.

Despite the trends, however, polls suggest that capital punishment still retains the support of two-thirds of Americans.

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