Tenn. executions halted as legal challenges continue

Four executions set within the next year have been delayed while both of the state's methods — lethal injection and its backup, the electric chair — are tied up in legal battles.

A group of more than 30 inmates is challenging the state's single-drug lethal injection protocol in Davidson County Chancery Court. Next month, the Tennessee Supreme Court will weigh whether the inmates can also challenge the electric chair.

The inmates say both methods are unconstitutional because they create risk of cruel and unusual punishment or lingering death.

Filings and hearings led to some developments last week. Here are five things you need to know:

•The Tennessee Supreme Court stayed all execution dates while the cases are pending. Four death row inmates had scheduled dates, but those have been removed from the calendar. None of the 69 inmates on death row is currently scheduled to die.

•Attorneys for the inmates submitted evidence to the Supreme Court that the lethal injection chemical cannot be gotten through legal means. An affidavit from Dr. James Ruble, a pharmacist and pharmacy professor in Utah, says he contacted companies that supply the active ingredient in pentobarbital and none had it available.

• Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman clarified in court Friday, citing a state Supreme Court opinion, that the attorneys for the inmates are challenging the lethal injection protocol as it is written, and not the qualifications of the people who carry out executions. It means the inmates' attorneys will not be able to interview or examine pharmacists who prescribe lethal injection drugs.

•Attorneys for the condemned inmates suggested in Chancery Court that the Tennessee Department of Corrections has a separate execution protocol being kept secret, but that they need to examine as part of their case. More information on that is expected to come in later hearings.

• The attorneys will return to Bonnyman's courtroom on April 17. The attorneys for the inmates are expected to outline their case and what they intend to present during trial. Trial is set for July. Bonnyman ruled that trial will only deal with the lethal injection challenges.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.