Opinion ID: 1057584
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lethal Injection Unconstitutional

Text: The defendant asserts that Tennessee's lethal injection procedure and protocol violates principles of cruel and unusual punishment. In support of his claim, the defendant relies upon the United States Supreme Court's grant of certiorari in Baze v. Rees, 551 U.S. 1192, 128 S.Ct. 34, 168 L.Ed.2d 809 (2007) (granting review to determine the constitutionality of Kentucky's three-drug lethal injection protocol). On April 16, 2008, the United States Supreme Court decided Baze v. Rees , upholding the State of Kentucky's lethal-injection protocol as not being violative of the Eighth Amendment. Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35, 128 S.Ct. 1520, 170 L.Ed.2d 420 (2008). The Supreme Court's plurality found that cruel and unusual punishment occurs where lethal injection as an execution method presents a substantial or objectively intolerable risk of serious harm in light of feasible, readily implemented alternative procedures. Id. at 51-52, 1531-32. However, the analysis was focused on the manner of lethal injection. Id. at 60-62, 1537. The Baze Court held: Kentucky has adopted a method of execution believed to be the most humane available, one it shares with 35 other States ... [which] if administered as intended ... will result in a painless death. The risks of maladministration... such as improper mixing of chemicals and improper setting of IVs by trained and experienced personnelcannot remotely be characterized as objectively intolerable. Kentucky's decision to adhere to its protocol despite these asserted risks, while adopting safeguards to protect against them, cannot be viewed as probative of the wanton infliction of pain under the Eighth Amendment. Baze, 553 U.S. at 62, 128 S.Ct. at 1537-38. For the disposition of other cases uncertain, Chief Justice Roberts stated that [a] State with a lethal injection protocol substantially similar to the protocol we uphold today would not create a risk that meets [the `substantial risk'] standard. Id. at 61, 1537 (emphasis added). The protocol adopted in Kentucky involves the combination of three drugs: the first, sodium thiopental, induces unconsciousness when given in the specified amounts and thereby ensures that the prisoner does not experience any pain associated with the paralysis and cardiac arrest caused by the second and third drugs, pan curonium bromide and potassium chloride. Among other things, Kentucky's lethal injection protocol reserves to qualified personnel having at least one year's professional experience the responsibility for inserting the intravenous (IV) catheters into the prisoner, leaving it to others to mix the drugs and load them into syringes; specifies that the warden and deputy warden will remain in the execution chamber to observe the prisoner and watch for any IV problems while the execution team administers the drugs from another room; and mandates that if, as determined by the warden and deputy, the prisoner is not unconscious within 60 seconds after the sodium thiopental's delivery, a new dose will be given at a secondary injection site before the second and third drugs are administered. Baze, 553 U.S. at 35, 128 S.Ct. at 1522. Tennessee has adopted a three-drug protocol for lethal injection similar to that of Kentucky. See, e.g., Baze, 553 U.S. at 44, 128 S.Ct. at 1527; Workman v. Bredesen, 486 F.3d 896, 902 (6th Cir.2007); Abdur'Rahman v. Bredesen, 181 S.W.3d 292, 314 (Tenn.2005). Therefore, we are unable to conclude that Tennessee's lethal injection procedure, which appears facially similar to the procedure considered in Baze, is unconstitutional. The defendant is not entitled to relief on this claim. ALAN E. GLENN, JUDGE