Tennessee’s Lethal Injection Protocol: “Cruel and Unsual”

Posted by Mary Mancini on September 19, 2007 under Uncategorized |

From TCASK: Today Judge Aleta Trauger ruled that Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol violates the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, Judge Trauger’s ruling prohibits any executions in Tennessee under the new protocol, including E.J. Harbison’s which is scheduled for next week.

The state will most likely appeal the ruling to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which means that this stay could be vacated in time for the exeuction to move forward. However, the ruling is a huge statement concerning the state’s problematic protocol and the way that the death penalty is administered.

Please call or email the Governor for two reasons:
1) Thank him for commuting the death sentence of Michael Boyd because of Boyd’s inadequate representation. The decision was fair and appropriate.
2) Tell the Governor that E.J. Harbison’s death sentence is also arbitrary and unfair, in large part because of inadequate representation. Ask him to grant clemency for E.J. Harbison.

Call Governor Phil Bredesen at (615) 741-2001 or email phil.bredesen@state.tn.us.

More details about the E.J. Harbison case can be found at TCASK.org.

For more information on the connection between the 8th amendment, the American penal system, and the recent prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, listen to our interview with Colin Dayan, the Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt and author of “The Story of Cruel & Unusual,” a powerful book takes a hard look at the dismantling of the prohibition of “cruel and unusual” punishment.