USA - Tennessee. Judge Claudia Bonnyman upholds Tennessee lethal injection method.

Judge upholds Tennessee lethal injection method. Davidson County Chancery Judge Claudia Bonnyman today upheld the state's lethal injection process for executing inmates. Judge Bonnyman said from the bench that the plaintiffs, 33 death row inmates, didn't prove that the one-drug method led to a painful and lingering death. She also said the plaintiffs didn't show during a lengthy trial that there have been problems in states where the method has been used. "Plaintiffs were not able to carry their burdens ... on any of their claims," Bonnyman said. Plaintiffs' attorney Kelley Henry said they plan to appeal. Tennessee's protocol calls for the use of pentobarbital mixed to order by a pharmacist. Tennessee has not executed an inmate for more than five years because of legal challenges and problems in obtaining lethal injection drugs. Lawmakers moved from a three-drug lethal injection method to a one-drug method and to reinstate the electric chair as a backup. Both changes brought challenges, and all previously scheduled executions have been put on hold. Although Tennessee has yet to carry out an execution using compounded pentobarbital, state attorney Scott Sutherland has said that Texas, Ohio and Georgia have had more than 30 successful and painless executions with that drug. (See also Nov. 19 and 29, 2010, Feb. 16, 2011, Aug. 11, 2014 and Sep. 29, 2014).