23 November 2010 :

A Davidson County judge, Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, ruled that the state's lethal injection method is unconstitutional, paving the way for a delay in the execution of death row inmate Stephen Michael West. The ruling could delay more executions planned by Tennessee and other states that use the lethal injection method. A final decision on the issue will be made by the state Supreme Court, which technically must issue a stay for the execution to be delayed. Sharon Curtis-Flair, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general, said an appeal is likely. West's lawyers showed that Tennessee's lethal injection procedure "allows for death by suffocation while conscious," Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ruled. The state had the opportunity to put in safeguards in the lethal injection method when it was studied in 2007 but did not, she said. West had been scheduled to be executed on Nov. 30 for the murder of a woman and her teenage daughter. Bonnyman said this case differs from a Kentucky case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court because the Kentucky case had no dispute over the amount of sodium thiopental, the drug used to render the inmate unconscious, as long as it was administered properly. She said in this case, she found that the level of sodium thiopental is not sufficient and it's up to the state to decide what the level would be. It is not known how the ruling might be used by attorneys defending death row inmates in other states that use the same method of execution. Bonnyman made her ruling after hearing further arguments from West's attorneys that the state's lethal injection procedure would violate the Constitution's Eighth Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment. Medical experts testified over 2 days this week about the effects of the drugs on inmates.