[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENNESSEE

[Rick Halperin]

August 9



TENNESSEE----impending execution

Supreme Court Denies Stay of Execution for Billy Ray Irick

Sotomayor dissents: If law permits this execution, 'we have stopped being a 
civilized nation and accepted barbarism'


The Supreme Court of the United States has denied Billy Ray Irick's request for 
a stay of execution, clearing the way for him to be executed tonight.

The request was denied by Justice Elena Kagan, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor 
issued a long and strongly worded dissent, citing the conclusions of medical 
experts who say Tennessee's three-drug lethal injection protocol will cause 
Irick immense pain.

"In refusing to grant Irick a stay, the Court today turns a blind eye to a 
proven likelihood that the State of Tennessee is on the verge of inflicting 
several minutes of torturous pain on an inmate in its custody, while shrouding 
his suffering behind a veneer of paralysis," Sotomayor writes.

In conclusion, she adds: "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. I dissent."

Irick was sentenced to death in 1986 for the rape and murder of 7-year-old 
Paula Dyer. He has a history of severe mental illness, and although he was 
ruled competent to stand trial, the doctor who had made that assessment later 
said he no longer had confidence in that decision.

(source: Nashville Scene)