30 March 2017 :

Tennessee Supreme Court upholds death penalty. The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the state's lethal injection protocols in a unanimous opinion. The court found that death row inmates failed to show that the current protocol violates their constitution right against cruel and unusual punishment. 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. Executions have been stayed in the state while the legal challenge was pending with the last execution occurring in 2009. More than 30 condemned inmates filed the complaint stating that the use of pentobarbital created the risk of a lingering death and the lack of training at the Tennessee Department of Correction increased the risk of a botched execution. With the decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court, executions may begin being scheduled again. The sentence is Stephen Michael West, et al. v. Derrick D. Schofield, et al.