Tennessee, made another bid to halt the death penalty in the US by ruling the method of execution inappropriate. This is a step away from recognising that the death penalty itself is inappropriate, though the time until that is recognised at a national, Federal level is uncertain.
A Federal judge in Tennessee ruled that the state’s method of executing prisoners by lethal injection is illegal because it is a cruel and unusual punishment. He noted that inmates were not properly anaesthetised before the injection was administered and this presents a “substantial risk of unnecessary pain” to inmates and violated their constitutional rights. Tennessee is among 11 states in which executions have been postponed or blocked over concerns about injections.
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