NASHVILLE, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Tennessee plans to ask the state Supreme Court to green-light Stephen Michael West's execution now that a judge OKd the state's lethal-injection procedures.
The state's "three-drug cocktail" approach, which first renders an inmate unconscious and then paralyzes his muscles before stopping the heart, had enough safeguards to avoid "death by suffocation while the prisoner is conscious" and was therefore adequate and constitutional, Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman said in her ruling.
The state's procedure involving "simple manual checks for consciousness" before giving the final lethal injection "seems to take care of the problem," Bonnyman said.
The procedure requires the warden to call out the inmate's name, shake him and brush his eyelashes before giving the go-ahead for the final lethal injection that stops the heartbeat.
If the inmate shows a response, the warden is required to administer a second dose.
Nineteen of the 36 U.S. states that use the three-drug lethal-injection cocktail perform the consciousness checks, and other higher courts have found the warden checks to be sufficient, Bonnyman said.
If the state Supreme Court upholds Bonnyman's ruling, West's execution date could be set for September, a state corrections spokeswoman told The (Nashville) Tennessean.
West was convicted in 1987 of kidnapping and fatally stabbing Wanda Romines and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila Romines, in the Knoxville area. West also was convicted of raping the teenager.
