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Tennessee's Lethal Injection Challenge

By Steve Hall

"Tennessee lacks medical expertise for lethal injections," is the title of Erin Quinn's report for the Tennessean. Ricky Bell is prepared to take the back of Stephen West's head, brush his eyelashes and call out his name once a drug to knock out the rapist and murderer is shot into his veins. If Bell sees no signs that West is still conscious, the warden of Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution will tell the executioner to pump the inmate with two more drugs to paralyze and kill him. But if Bell thinks there's a chance the 48-year-old killer is awake, he'll order a second 5 grams of sodium thiopental, the drug designed to cause unconsciousness. Because Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman last month decided the current three-drug cocktail could cause a condemned inmate to suffer an extremely painful death, all executions in Tennessee are on hold...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on December 07, 2010 (boomark / email).