Step by step, state draws closer to execution
For the first time in nearly a decade, Tennessee is set to execute an inmate on death row.
Billy Ray Irick, 59, was convicted in 1986 of the rape and murder of 7-yearold Paula Dyer in Knox County. Irick was living with the girl’s family at the time of the crime.
He has exhausted all criminal appeals on his case, and his execution is set for Thursday at 7 p.m.
1. Irick has been moved to death watch
The Tennessee Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday morning that Irick was moved to death watch around 11:30 p.m. Monday.
When a death row inmate is placed on death watch, he is moved to a cell a few feet away from the room where the execution will take place.
It’s also the time when an offender decides what he wants as a last meal.
Inmates on death watch are watched around the clock by correctional officers and, unlike many cells on death row with solid doors and a window, the death watch cells are enclosed by an iron bar door.
2. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the execution should proceed as scheduled
Although Irick has exhausted appeals on his original case, he asked the court last week to delay his execution so that he and 32 other death row offenders could continue their legal challenge of the drugs Tennessee intends to use to kill him.
The five-person court ruled that Irick had failed to present a legal argument that was likely to win on appeal.
Haslam has the authority to change Irick’s death sentence to life without the possibility of parole, or a different sentence altogether, though he said he will not do so.
“I took an oath to uphold the law,” Haslam said in a statement Monday. “Capital punishment is the law in Tennessee and was ordered in this case by a jury of Tennesseans and upheld by more than a dozen state and federal courts.
“My role is not to be the 13th juror or the judge or to impose my personal views, but to carefully review the judicial process to make sure it was full and fair. Because of the extremely thorough judicial review of all of the evidence and arguments at every stage in this case, clemency is not appropriate.”
4. Irick’s last option would be for the U.S. Supreme Court to act
At this point, Irick has essentially one option: ask for a stay in the federal court system.
Kelley Henry, the federal public defender who has led the lethal injection challenge, and his criminal defense attorney Gene Shiles, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to act on an application submitted Tuesday. If the U.S. Supreme Court denies the stay, Irick’s attorneys could continue the civil appeal through the federal court system.
5. Tennessee has not executed an inmate since 2009
If executed, Irick would be the first inmate put to death in Tennessee since 2009.
That year, Steve Henley and Cecil Johnson were executed.
Although the state has scheduled several execution dates for Irick in the past, all have been delayed before Irick was moved to death watch.
6. Irick is set to die by lethal injection
Lethal injection is the primary means of carrying out the death penalty in Tennessee, although the electric chair is also legal. The state had used pentobarbital, a barbiturate, but manufacturers have largely stopped selling the drug to anyone using it for executions.
In 2017, the general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Correction said the state did not have the drugs needed to carry out an execution, but could get them if they needed. In January, the state adopted a new lethal injection protocol that called for a threedrug cocktail.
7. Tennessee’s use of midazolam, one of three drugs administered, is controversial
Some experts say midazolam, the first drug in the state’s new protocol, is meant to put an inmate to sleep before two other drugs stop the heart and lungs.
Experts who testified on the inmates’ behalf said midazolam is often ineffective, leaving people awake as they’re subjected to torturous pain before they die.
8. Irick is among death row inmates who unsuccessfully sued over midazolam
Irick and 32 inmates on Tennessee’s death row sued the state in February in Davidson County Chancery Court. They said the drugs the state plans to use would lead to unconstitutional suffering. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled July 26 that the state could use the drugs, noting that while the offender may feel pain, it would not rise to the level of torture
Henry described administering the drug being “akin to burning someone alive.”
9. The Tennessee Supreme Court is acting under a 2015 rule change
A 2015 change to the rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court requires death row inmates to prove an ongoing lawsuit is likely to succeed in order to get a stay of execution.
Monday’s ruling in Irick’s request for a stay is the first time the court has applied the new rule. The court determined that Irick had failed to present a legal argument that was likely to win on appeal.
The court’s order acknowledged that a similar request would have been granted before the change was made — but not now.
“Indeed, this Court has granted such stays in the past,” the order read. But “to obtain a stay at this time, Mr. Irick must establish a likelihood of success, and he has failed to satisfy this standard.”
10. Irick’s mental state has been called into question
In the years after his conviction, new reviews of Irick’s history of mental health issues raised additional questions about his mental state at the time of the crime.
Advocates say Irick suffered from severe mental illness at the time he committed the rape and murder in 1986.
A psychiatrist who interviewed Irick during his trial determined the man did not suffer from mental illness. However, documents presented at subsequent legal proceedings show he started receiving treatment for mental illness as a young boy, including a commitment to a psychiatric hospital.