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

Dave Boucher | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Tennessee carries out execution of Billy Ray Irick Billy Ray Irick's was executed by the state of Tennessee by lethal injection.

NASHVILLE – 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 seven members of the media.

Irick is the 133rd person put to death by Tennessee since 1916. Before Irick, all but six 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."

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

Irick, with nearly shoulder-length hair, a scraggly beard and 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.

"I’m here first and foremost for the victim Paula Dyer and for the citizens of Knox County, the same citizens that convicted him and sentenced him to death," Jones said. "I wanted to hear some more from him. You’re always looking for that explanation.”

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 administered.

When the two men returned into the observation room around 7:25 p.m., Shiles told witnesses that he kissed Irick and touched him, said Tennessean reporter Dave Boucher, who was among the media witnesses.

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

Jamie Satterfield, a media witness from the Knoxville News Sentinel, described seeing Paula’s family members as they watched in a separate room.

"He leaned up close to the glass, he bit his nail a little, he was very nervous, but I didn’t see any tears," she said of one of the family members.

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

Satterfield described another woman whose face was "almost pressed to the window."

Both the man and the woman leaned back as it appeared Irick had stopped breathing.

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.

Before his death, Irick ate his last meal: a burger, onion rings and a Pepsi soft drink. Shiles said earlier Thursday that Irick was in good spirits and understood he would be executed.

Victim’s family among witnesses

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 Paula'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 and other family members chose not to speak at a news conference 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.

Thursday night following the execution, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III released a statement declaring that "justice was finally served" for the murder and rape of Paula.

"I hope tonight’s lawful execution in some way eases the heartache Paula’s family has lived with and brings a degree of closure to a chapter of their lives that has been indescribably difficult.”

U.S. Supreme Court denied request

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.

"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 five hours before Irick's death, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied his request to delay his execution. However, fellow 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.

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

People gather at the site of the execution of Billy Ray Irick People came out to the site of the execution of Billy Ray Irick

Irick joined 32 other death row inmates in a lawsuit arguing the three 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 first 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.

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

Contributing: Natalie Allison and Adam Tamburin

Follow Dave Boucher on Twitter: @Dave_Boucher1