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US-CRIME-EXECUTION-TENNESSEE
US Supreme Court declines to halt execution of child killer
CHICAGO, Aug 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The US Supreme Court declined Thursday
to stop the execution of a convicted child rapist and killer, rejecting
concerns about the inmate potentially feeling sensations equivalent to being
“burned alive.”
But the high court’s decision was countered with a blistering dissent from
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who questioned whether Billy Ray Irick’s planned
execution would be too painful and whether allowing it to proceed required
accepting “barbarism.”
The high court’s rejection of Irick’s appeal likely means his execution
will move forward Thursday evening in the state of Tennessee.
The 59-year-old was convicted in 1986 of raping and killing seven-year-old
Paula Dyer. His lawyers have argued Irick has a history of severe mental
illness.
In an appeal to the Supreme Court, Irick’s lawyers challenged Tennessee’s
lethal injection protocol, which included the use of the sedative midazolam.
Other states have also used the drug for executions with mixed results.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied the appeal without comment.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, citing lower court testimony about the potential
risks of midazolam executions, dissented.
Medical experts warned the drug may not be strong enough to keep a prisoner
unconscious once he starts to feel pain.
If Irick were to awaken, a paralytic used as the second drug in Tennessee’s
lethal injection would prevent him from alerting officials that he can feel
pain, Sotomayor noted.
“Medical experts explained in painstaking detail how the three-drug
cocktail Tennessee plans to inject into Irick’s veins will cause him to
experience sensations of drowning, suffocating, and being burned alive from
the inside out,” Sotomayor wrote.
“If the law permits this execution to go forward in spite of the horrific
final minutes that Irick may well experience, then we have stopped being a
civilized nation and accepted barbarism.”
Three out of 14 executions in the US this year have employed midazolam,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
But the drug has been the subject of multiple legal challenges.
Ohio halted executions in 2014 after the botched execution of Dennis
McGuire using midazolam. The prisoner appeared to suffer for several minutes
before dying.
A federal appeals court in 2017 granted Ohio permission to resume
executions, after officials increased the dose of the drug by a factor of 50.
Meanwhile, the state of Nevada last month postponed an execution after
midazolam-manufacturer Alvogen successfully sued to stop its product from
being used in executions.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0813 hrs