Tenn. Execution Manual Full of Errors
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee's procedure manual for executing prisoners is a jumble of conflicting instructions that mixes new lethal injection instructions with those for the old electric chair, an Associated Press review found.
Before a lethal injection, the 100-page "Manual of Execution" instructs prison officials to begin by shaving the condemned prisoner's head - as if preparing him for electrocution. They would also need a fire extinguisher nearby.
Gov. Phil Bredesen suspended four executions last week, calling the document a "cut-and-paste job" that needs significant revision. He set a May 2 deadline for the overhaul.
The mistakes were added last summer when Tennessee decided to update the manual after a death row inmate asked to be electrocuted, Correction Commissioner George Little said. The state's last execution took place in June, before the manual was revised.
Little attributed the errors to poor proofreading.
"This is human error," Little said. "Bottom line, it's in the typing, but certainly not in the carrying out of the actual executions."
The manual's minute-by-minute guidelines for lethal injections includes the instruction: "The Executioner will engage the automatic rheostat." A rheostat controls the voltage flowing to an electric chair.
The guidelines also tell the facility manager to disconnect the electrical cables in the rear of the chair before a doctor checks whether the lethal injection was successful.
Exactly how ignorant and inept do you have to be to throw together that mess?
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