On April 10, the Tennessee Supreme Court can­celed the exe­cu­tion dates for all four Tennessee death-row inmates cur­rent­ly under death war­rant, and returned their cas­es to the low­er courts to address the inmates’ chal­lenges to the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. The exe­cu­tions had been sched­uled for October 2015 through March 2016. Tennessee has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2009, but the state announced in 2013 that it would switch from a three-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col to a one-drug pro­to­col using pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Because of dif­fi­cul­ties obtain­ing lethal injec­tion drugs, Tennessee also passed a law in 2014 per­mit­ting the use of the elec­tric chair if lethal injec­tion drugs are not avail­able. A group of inmates are cur­rent­ly chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Tennessee’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col as con­sti­tut­ing cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, and the inmates have also chal­lenged the State’s use of the elec­tric chair. The Tennessee Supreme Court is expect­ed to decide soon if it will review the inmates’ chal­lenges to the electric chair.

(S. Barchenger, ​“Tenn. exe­cu­tions halt­ed as legal chal­lenges con­tin­ue,” The Tennessean, April 13, 2015; M. Berman, ​“Tennessee court calls off the rest of the state’s sched­uled exe­cu­tions,” The Washington Post, April 13, 2015.) See Lethal Injection and Recent Legislative Activity.

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