Opinion ID: 1230319
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to adopt alternative procedures

Text: Finally, the district court held that the State's failure to adopt a one-drug protocol and other safeguards demonstrated cruel and unusual punishment. Id. at 898. The Tennessee protocol review committee recommended that the State begin to use the one-drug protocol because it was simpler and provided a lower risk of error. Id. at 895. However, Commissioner Little rejected this recommendation due to concerns about being in the forefront on this issue and potential political ramifications. Id. at 896. [1] The district court concluded that, by rejecting the one-drug protocol, the Corrections Department knowingly disregarded an excessive risk of pain to the prisoner. Id. at 895-96. While Harbison argues that Tennessee's rejection of the one-drug protocol reflects deliberate indifference to the likelihood of his suffering severe pain, the Baze Court determined that a state's failure to adopt the one-drug protocol did not violate the prisoner's Eighth Amendment rights since the comparative efficiency of that method was not well-established. Baze, 128 S.Ct. at 1535. Although the one-drug protocol was not specifically proposed to the state trial court in Baze, and therefore the Court did not have any findings of fact on the effectiveness of the one-drug alternative, it noted how the continued use of the three-drug protocol cannot be seen as an objectively intolerable risk in light of the fact that no other state adopted it. Id. In addition, the district court's finding that the failure to adopt other safeguards, such as medical professionals to show the executioners how to mix the sodium thiopental and additional checks for consciousness after the sodium thiopental, Harbison, 511 F.Supp.2d at 896-98, requires reversal under Baze. Baze spoke to the general standard for evaluating proposed alternative procedures and held that the Eighth Amendment requires the plaintiff-inmate to first establish a substantial risk of serious harm before offering an alternative that is feasible, readily implemented, and that significantly reduces a substantial risk of severe pain. 128 S.Ct. at 1532. Only if the inmate shows the State refused to adopt such an alternative without a legitimate penological justification for adhering to its current method, will such a refusal violate the Eighth Amendment. Id.