TN Supreme Court rejects AG request for eight early executions; schedules two for later this year
The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied the state attorney general’s request to move up eight execution dates before June 1, reports the Associated Press. Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed the requests Feb. 5 and cited “ongoing difficulty” getting lethal injection drugs.
The court on Thursday did set execution dates for two of the inmates, Oct. 11 for Edmund Zagorski, who was convicted of two murders, and Dec. 6 for David Earl Miller, who was convicted of murdering a mentally disabled woman.
U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeals of nine TN death row inmates; one execution set for Aug. 9
Press release from Administrative Office of the Courts
The Tennessee Supreme Court set an execution date of August 9, 2018, for Billy Ray Irick, who was convicted of the 1985 murder and rape of Paula Kay Dyer, age 7, in Knox County, Tennessee. The Court received notice from the State Attorney General on January 11, 2018, that the United States Supreme Court had denied the defendant’s appeal challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol. Under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 12.4(E), the Court, on its own, may set a new execution date when a case with a previous execution date had stays or reprieves lifted or dissolved. Mr. Irick has had multiple previous execution dates.
TN Supreme Court affirms death sentence in Memphis triple murder
Press release from Administrative Office of the Courts
Nashville, Tenn. – The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the convictions and sentences of death for Sedrick Clayton for the murders of Arithio, Patricia, and Pashea Fisher and the conviction for attempted murder of A’Reco Fisher in Memphis.
Supremes confirm death penalty in 2008 Memphis murder
News release from the Administrative Office of the Courts
Nashville, Tenn. – The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed James Hawkins’s premeditated murder conviction and sentence of death for the 2008 murder of Charlene Gaither, Mr. Hawkins’s long-term girlfriend and the mother of his three children.
TN Supreme Court upholds death penalty protocol
News release from the Administrative Office of the Courts
Nashville, Tenn. – The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the written protocol by which the Tennessee Department of Correction carries out an execution by lethal injection.
The plaintiffs in this matter, each of whom have been convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, brought a declaratory judgment action in the trial court challenging the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol under both the United States and Tennessee Constitutions. This protocol was adopted on September 27, 2013, and provided that inmates who had been sentenced to death were to be executed by injection of a lethal dose of the drug, pentobarbital. The trial court conducted a lengthy evidentiary hearing and eventually denied the plaintiffs relief.
