Court Dismisses Claims on Lethal Injection
The Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously rejected claims that the three-drug combination used to execute killers can cause extreme pain in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lawyers for Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection in the 1986 beating death of a Nashville drug dealer, had sought to change the state’s method of execution.
Abdur’Rahman’s lawyer Bradley MacLean said he would appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has never found a specific form of execution to be unconstitutional.
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