Lethal injection process is blocked

A federal judge ruled in Nashville that the state’s new lethal injection procedures are cruel and unusual punishment, blocking an execution next week.

The protocol “presents a substantial risk of unnecessary pain” and violates death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison’s constitutional protections under the 8th Amendment, U.S. District Judge Aleta Arthur Trauger ruled.

The new protocol, released in April, does not ensure that inmates are properly anesthetized before the lethal injection is administered, Trauger said, which could “result in a terrifying, excruciating death.”