[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENNESSEE

[Rick Halperin]

August 9



TENNESSEE----execution

Tennessee executes Billy Ray Irick, 1st lethal injection in state since 
2009


Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick died at 7:48 p.m. Thursday after Tennessee 
prison officials administered a lethal dose of toxic chemicals. He was 59.

His execution, the first in Tennessee since 2009, comes after his 1986 
conviction in Knox County for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer.

Witnesses to the execution included members of Paula's family, Knox County 
Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones, Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Scott Sutherland, 
Irick's attorney Gene Shiles and 7 members of the media.

Irick is the 133rd person put to death by Tennessee since 1916. Before Irick, 
all but 6 executions occurred before 1961.

Moments before officials began administering the fatal doses, Irick, held down 
by straps over his chest and arms, muttered his final words: "I just want to 
say I'm really sorry. And that ... that's it."

The execution began later than scheduled, the blinds to the execution room 
being lifted at 7:26 p.m., 16 minutes later than the expected time of 7:10 p.m.

Irick, dressed in a white prison jumpsuit and black socks, was coughing, 
choking and gasping for air. His face turned dark purple as the lethal drugs 
took over, media witnesses reported.

"I never thought for one moment that it would come to this," Shiles said inside 
the prison before the execution began. "I never did."

Witnesses entered the execution viewing chamber at 6:43 p.m., where prison 
officials turned out the lights until the blinds to the glass were lifted.

Shiles and Deputy Attorney General Scott Sutherland left the viewing room at 
7:12 p.m., presumably to go into the execution chamber and observe Irick's IV 
being adminsitered.

When the 2 men returned into the observation room around 7:25 p.m., Shiles told 
witnesses that he kissed Irick and touched him.

Moments later the blinds lifted and Irick made his statement, the 
administration of a combination of powerful and deadly medications commenced.

First the executioner injected Irick with midazolam, a drug intended to render 
Irick unconscious.

After Riverbend Warden Tony Mays determined Irick was unconscious, the 
executioner injected vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The drugs are 
intended to stop Irick's lungs and heart.

Around the country, death row offenders have writhed, screamed, groaned and 
gasped as lethal injection drugs take longer than expected to work — or don't 
work at all.

At least twice in Ohio, the state had to call off executions after prison staff 
could not find a viable vein for the intravenous injection of the drugs.

Irick was a heavy-set man. Tennessee does not change its execution protocol 
depending on the body type of the condemned. But midazolam has a different 
effect on different people.

Before his death, Irick ate his last meal. Shiles said earlier Thursday that 
Irick was in good spirits and understood he would be executed.

Irick lived with Paula's mother and stepfather, Kathy and Kenny Jeffers, in 
1985. Although the family allowed the then-26-year-old Irick to live with them 
for some time, years after the crime they reported he exhibited signs of mental 
illness.

Kathy Jeffers was among the small group of Dyer's family members seen quietly 
coming and going from Riverbend Maximum Security Institute Thursday evening, 
walking out after the execution with a tissue in her left hand.

She chose not to speak at a news conference being held afterward outside the 
prison.

Jeffers had warned her husband she didn't want to leave the children with Irick 
the night of Paula's killing, that she'd seen him muttering to himself in a 
half-drunk rage on the porch before she left for work.

Court records show the family reported Irick heard voices and was "taking 
instructions from the devil." He also reportedly, while carrying a machete, 
chased after a young girl in Knoxville in the days proceeding Paula's death.

On April 15, 1985, Irick called Kenny Jeffers to say Paula would not wake up.

Her parents found Paula dead on their bed. An autopsy showed she died of 
asphyxiation. Irick initially tried to hitchhike out of town, but was caught by 
police the day after Paula's death.

Before and during his 32 years on death row, Irick repeatedly attempted to 
convince courts he was too mentally ill to be executed or that the drugs set 
for use in a lethal injection would violate his constitutional right not to be 
tortured to death.

While courts did delay his execution several times, most recently in 2014, no 
court decided to weigh in to prevent his death this time.

People came out to the site of the execution of Billy Ray Irick Andrew Nelles 
and Holly Meyer

"I thought somebody would actually look at the facts," Shiles said Thursday 
just before the execution, referring to evidence supporting Irick's mental 
illness. "I was wrong."

Roughly 5 hours before Irick's death, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan 
denied his request to delay his execution. However, fellow Supreme Court 
Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the decision not to delay the execution while 
the state reviewed its lethal injection method.

"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 wrote in her dissent.

"I cannot in good conscience join in this 'rush to execute' without first 
seeking every assurance that our precedent permits such results ... if the law 
permits this execution to go forward in spite of the horrific final minutes 
that Irick may well experience, then we stopped being a civilized nation and 
accepted barbarism."

Thursday afternoon, Catholic bishops in Nashville and Knoxville noted Pope 
Francis' recent rebuke of the death penalty to condemn Irick's execution.

"The state has the obligation to protect all people and to impose just 
punishment for crimes, but in the modern world the death penalty is not 
required for either of these ends," wrote Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville 
and J. Mark Spalding of Nashville.
Appeal continues against Tennessee's lethal injection protocol

It's unclear what impact Irick's execution will have on a pending legal 
challenge to the state's lethal injection protocol.

Irick joined 32 other death row inmates in a lawsuit arguing the 3 drugs 
Tennessee uses for lethal injections would violate their constitutional right 
to not be tortured to death. Experts at a trial in Davidson County argued the 
1st drug, midazolam, does not always work as intended to render an offender 
unconscious and unable to feel pain.

If the midazolam does not work, then the second and third drugs will cause pain 
similar to being burned alive and drowned, argued experts and attorneys for the 
death row offenders.

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle agreed the condemned may feel pain 
as he or she dies, but noted there is no legal right to a painless death.

She rejected the inmates' lawsuit, prompting an appeal to the Tennessee Supreme 
Court. Citing a procedural bar for the first time, a majority of the state's 
high court determined the inmates had a low chance at succeeding and therefore 
Irick's execution should not be delayed.

"By applying the law and requiring satisfaction of this legal standard, we are 
not 'rush(ing) to execute' Mr. Irick. In fact, this suggestion is astonishing, 
actually, given that Mr. Irick was convicted and sentenced 32 years ago and has 
obtained multiple stays over the years," the four-member majority wrote in a 
footnote of their opinion.

In a relatively unusual move, Justice Sharon Lee dissented.

"The harm to Mr. Irick of an unconstitutional execution is irreparable," Lee 
wrote in a forceful break with the majority. "Yet the harm to the State from 
briefly delaying the execution until after appellate review is minimal, if 
any."

Immediately after the state Supreme Court's decision, Gov. Bill Haslam also 
announced he would not intervene.

"My role is not to be the 13th juror or the judge or to impose my personal 
views, but to carefully review the judicial process to make sure it was full 
and fair," Haslam said in a news release earlier this week. "Because of the 
extremely thorough judicial review of all of the evidence and arguments at 
every stage in this case, clemency is not appropriate.”

In January, the Tennessee Supreme Court scheduled an Oct. 11 execution for 
Edmond Zagorski and a Dec. 11 death date for David Earl Miller.

Irick becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death in Tennessee since 
the state resumed capital punishment in 2000.

Irick becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be put to death in the USA this year 
and the 1480th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: The Tennessean & Rick Halperin)