A ruling in the Supreme Court of Tennessee has cleared the way for an elderly death row inmate with a severe intellectual disability to be executed next week, despite confusion over how officials will respond to a lower court’s finding that the lethal injection process could set off a prolonged response from his cardiac device and lead to a “tortuous” death.
“Unless the governor grants a reprieve or we get review from the Supreme Court, the state of Tennessee will torture my client to death next week,” Kelley Henry, the man’s public defender, told The Washington Post.
