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Thread: Tennessee Capital Punishment News

  1. #121
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    State Attorney General Seeks Execution Dates for Nine Death Row Prisoners

    By Steven Hale
    Nashville Scene

    Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to set execution dates for nine more men, including the four remaining death row prisoners from Nashville.

    The request for more execution dates came without warning. Slatery’s office filed motions asking for the dates on Sept. 20 — the same day the AG announced he would challenge Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins’ decision to vacate the death sentence of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman at the request of Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk. Slatery took aim at Watkins and Funk — both of whom are elected officials — in a press release announcing the legal challenge, calling the decision to drop

    Abdur’Rahman’s death sentence “unlawful” and “unprecedented.” Funk said he stands by his position, while Abdur’Rahman’s attorney Bradley MacLean called the AG’s move “unprecedented” and said the state is “bound” by Watkins’ order.

    The AG can seek execution dates for a death row prisoner once the prisoner has exhausted the three-tier appeals process. The state Supreme Court decides when the executions will take place. In February 2018, Slatery sought a slew of execution dates and asked for them to be scheduled in quick succession, citing concerns about the state’s ability to carry out lethal injections beyond June of that year. The state Supreme Court ultimately blocked the AG’s request for the rush of executions.

    Excluding Abdur’Rahman — whose execution had been scheduled for April 16, 2020 — there are two more men scheduled to be executed in the coming months: Lee Hall on Dec. 5 and Nicholas Sutton on Feb. 20.

    The men for whom the AG is seeking execution dates are below:

    Byron Black (Davidson County), who was convicted for the 1987 murders of Angela Clay and her two daughters, Latoya and Lakeisha Clay.

    Oscar Smith (Davidson County), who was convicted for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife Judy Smith and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett.

    Henry Hodges (Davidson County), who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of Ronald Bassett during a robbery.

    Donald Middlebrooks (Davidson County), who was convicted for the 1987 murder of Kerrick Majors.

    Pervis Payne (Shelby County), who was convicted for the 1987 murders of Charisse Christopher and her two-year-old daughter, Lacie, as well as the assault of Christopher’s three-year-old son, Nicholas.

    Tony Carruthers (Shelby County), who was convicted for the 1994 murders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker.

    Farris Morris (Madison County), who was convicted in 1997 for the murders of Erica Hurd and Charles Ragland, as well as for the rape of Angela Ragland.

    Gary Sutton (Blount County), who was convicted, along with co-defendant James Dellinger, in the 1992 murders of Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam.

    Harold Nichols (Hamilton County), convicted for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley. Nichols has also been convicted for a series of other rapes.

    Like the five men who have been executed since August 2018, many of the men above have a history of severe mental illness.

    The Scene received this response from Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry:

    We learned of the request for mass executions late yesterday after receiving the requests in the mail. Seven of the nine are represented by my office. All of the remaining Davidson county cases are included in the request. We were surprised by the request for mass executions. Each case is unique and represents a number of fundamental constitutional problems including innocence, racism, and severe mental illness. We will oppose the appointed Attorney General’s request.

    https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/...-row-prisoners
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #122
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    It's harvesting season.


    17 serious execution dates in 3 years that is an amazing streak. TN death row is going to get a good cull.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #123
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    I'm as happy as anyone about this development, but maybe this time the TN Supreme Court could, gee I don't know, not schedule executions requested in 2019 for 2021. There's no excuse for not scheduling them all in 2020.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #124
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Emails Reveal State's Concerns About Quality and Supply of Lethal Injection Drugs

    Tennessee prison officials have had problems maintaining the quality and supply of lethal injection drugs, and have contemplated alternatives to the current three-drug protocol. The issues are raised in emails between officials sent last year amid the state’s historic execution spree.

    The emails are included in a new federal court filing from attorneys representing death row prisoners, including Oscar Smith, who is scheduled to be executed this year. Tennessee is set to execute Nick Sutton on Feb. 20, and Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to death in Nashville in 1989, is set to be executed on June 4, followed by Harold Nichols on Aug. 4.


    In one of the newly revealed emails, sent on Aug. 8, 2018, an official — whose name is redacted — says that the state’s potassium chloride was “falling out of solution.” Potassium chloride is the third drug in the state’s current lethal injection protocol — following midazolam and vecuronium bromide — and is used to stop the heart of the person being executed. The filing goes on to say that this indicates that the state is using compounded potassium chloride and that “the administration of compounded chemicals that have fallen out of solution has been described as injecting rocks into the veins.” If potassium chloride that has fallen out of solution is used in a lethal injection, the attorneys write, it “might not reach the heart because it will not circulate through the body as intended.” If that happens, they write, the condemned prisoner will slowly suffocate.

    It’s not clear whether this problem with potassium chloride occurred before Don Johnson’s May 16 execution by lethal injection. The email was sent one week before the Aug. 15 execution of Stephen West, who was killed by electrocution. In any case, the attorneys write, the state has not disclosed these issues with prisoners even as they are asked to make a choice between lethal injection and electrocution.

    Another email cited in the new filing reveals that the state ran into problems acquiring at least one of the lethal injection drugs in the protocol. A message sent on Nov. 21 from the state’s compounding pharmacist reads, “I am still having a difficult time sourcing the Vecuronium,” and raises the possibility of acquiring a different drug to be used in its place. Vecuronium bromide, the second drug in the state’s lethal injection protocol, is a paralytic.

    On Nov. 5, Lee Hall chose the electric chair for his Dec. 5 execution without being informed of the state’s difficulty acquiring lethal injection drugs. Moreover, the filing notes, by that point the state’s “supply of manufactured vecuronium bromide had expired.”

    “If Mr. Hall had not elected to be electrocuted, Defendants would have been forced to inform him that they could not carry out his execution by lethal injection, paving the way for Mr. Hall to challenge the constitutionality of Tennessee’s electric chair,” the attorneys write.

    They also say that the state does not appear to have acquired a new supply of vecuronium bromide or another drug to use in its place.

    The attorneys write that Nick Sutton was not informed of problems with the supply or quality of lethal injection drugs when he chose the electric chair for his Feb. 20 execution. As in the case of Lee Hall, the attorneys argue this unfairly prevented Sutton from having the opportunity to challenge the electric chair in court.

    Lastly, emails cited in the new filings reveal that the state has considered alternatives to its current three-drug lethal injection protocol, including returning to pentobarbital, the state’s drug of choice prior to a change in 2018. An email sent on Oct. 30, 2019, indicates that state officials believe they might be able to import pentobarbital from out of the country because it is not readily available in the United States.

    Until 2018, Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol called for a single dose of pentobarbital. In their unsuccessful 2018 legal challenge of the new three-drug protocol, attorneys representing dozens of death row prisoners argued that pentobarbital was an alternative to the midazolam-based cocktail.

    In the new filing, the attorneys write that pentobarbital was used in 14 executions nationwide in 2019 and “significantly reduces the substantial risk of severe pain presented by Tennessee’s current three-drug lethal injection protocol.”

    https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/...njection-drugs
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #125
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Georgia, Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Virginia, and maybe Idaho are the only states that have the drugs needed to carry out executions. They also have adequate amounts. Lawmakers are morons. They don’t know how to get drugs. When they do, it’s only for a limited amount of time.

  6. #126
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    What I want to know is what idiot gave these emails to the press? This blows the entire operation as Tennessee inmates keep picking the chair
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

  7. #127
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Morons I swear.

  8. #128
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Alfred's Avatar
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    They should declare LI unavailable, in which case Tennessee law prescribes the chair.

    Several states have such a provision, it's something they should finally resort to.

  9. #129
    Senior Member Frequent Poster NanduDas's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ted View Post
    What I want to know is what idiot gave these emails to the press? This blows the entire operation as Tennessee inmates keep picking the chair
    Wouldn’t surprise me if some abolitionist on the inside had a bothered conscience.
    "The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer." -Theodore Roosevelt

  10. #130
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Alfred's Avatar
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    That's quite likely. Though I don't see how the prisoners have a case. In case they choose LI it's up to the DOC to decide whether the drugs are available and of sufficient quality - that's not up to a judge.

    The protocol stands, and for each past execution it has been the responsibility of the DOC to guarantee the quality of the drugs.

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