The Tennessee Supreme Court heard a case surrounding the constitutionality of protocols surrounding lethal injection, leaving it up to the court to decide whether lethal injection can continue in Tennessee, or whether an alternative needs to be found regarding the death penalty.
As it stands now, Tennesseans sentenced to death for offenses committed from 1999 to present day are put to death by lethal injection. Those sentenced to death for crimes committed prior to 1999 are given the option of lethal injection or the electric chair.
Attorneys representing 33 death row inmates argued on Thursday that the method of lethal injection in Tennessee is unlawful under the 8th Amendment, arguing cruel and unusual punishment.
"You cannot perform a lawful act in an unlawful manner," Michael Passino, one of the attorneys representing death row inmates, said.
Tennessee has only had five executions in the past decade, but in other states, it has also been found that the drug used in lethal injection serums can take upwards of an hour before someone is officially declared dead, even though the person is unconscious after less than a minute.
"Lethal injection is recognized as the most humane method of execution," Jennifer Smith of the State Attorney General's Office explained during the arguments.
The defense argued that the plaintiffs had no alternative to offer, and because executions are legal in the United States and in the state of Tennessee, there needs to be a way to carry them out.
"The United States Supreme Court has said repeatedly that the death penalty is constitutional in this country," Justice Roger Page of the Tennessee Supreme Court said during the plaintiff's arguments. "Doesn't it follow that there needs to be some constitutional method to carry it out?"
After just over an hour of arguments, the case was left with the members of the Supreme Court. They must now decide whether protocols surrounding lethal injection are legal, or whether Tennessee needs to find an alternative when it comes to the death penalty.
