Tennessee’s next death row inmate slated for execution asked for intervention in the case by the US. Supreme Court (SCOTUS).
Attorneys for Darrell Hines asked the court to review a decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court earlier this month. The attorneys asked the state court for an outside review of the case, to know if a certain doctor would preside over Hines’ execution, and a stay of execution for him during the review. The state Supreme Court denied this request.
Hines is slated for execution Thursday. His will be the first since a botched execution in May inflicted pain upon but ultimately failed to kill inmate Tony Von Carruthers.
Attorneys for Hines have explored numerous legal avenues for reprieve since that botched execution — first in a Nashville court, then to the state Supreme Court, and now the SCOTUS. They have not yet been successful.
They argue the state’s execution protocol is broken and is often ignored by the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC). At the heart, they said, is under-qualified personnel who carry them out.
The public has not been notified of any changes in the state’s lethal injection protocol since this execution. With this, Hines’ attorneys ask the SCOTUS to clarify if the Eighth Amendment allows a state to execute a person if it will rely on unqualified personnel that could cause severe pain, suffering, and terror. The amendment stops the government from using cruel and unusual punishments.
Specifically, Hines’ attorneys point to Dr. Mark Fowler, the physician who oversaw Carruthers’ execution. They claim he “was primarily responsible for the botched attempted execution…an excruciating affair that lasted over an hour.”
“For over an hour, the Tennessee Department of Correction’s contracted medical personnel repeatedly pierced Mr. Carruthers’ body with needles in his arms, hand, feet, chest, and neck, as he bled, moaned, and cried out in pain,” reads the petition to SCOTUS. “After Mr. Carruthers was returned to his cell—with severe physical and psychological injuries — he told his attorney that the physician who oversaw the state’s failed intravenous catheterization process, (Fowler) ‘was hurting me and he knew he was hurting me.'”
Fowler was, ultimately, responsible for finding a central line to deliver the pentobarbital, the single drug used in the state’s lethal injections. When TDOC staff could not find the right place for the line, Fowler stepped in, tried to find the right place for several minutes before the execution was called off by the governor’s office.
Hines’ attorneys also argue that recent strokes has left the inmate partially paralyzed, increasing the likelihood that Fowler will, once again, be responsible for placing the central line.
The petition does not set a deadline for the court to respond. It is not clear whether or not it will respond at all. However, the petition says Hines is set for execution on Thursday at 9 a.m. CST.
