NASHVILLE -- The Tennessee Supreme Court today turned down a challenge by state death row inmates to the use of electrocution has an alternative executive method, calling it premature and "unripe" for consideration.
In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Connie Clark says that "because the death-sentenced inmates are not currently subject to execution by electrocution and will not ever become subject to execution by electrocution unless one of two statutory contingencies occurs in the future, their claims challenging the constitutionality of the 2014 statute and electrocution as a means of execution are not ripe."
The court reversed a Davidson County Chancery Court judge's decision which denied the state's motion to dismiss and dismissed the "electrocution claims as unripe, and remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this decision."
State lawmakers passed the 2014 law in response to efforts by death row inmates' attorneys to challenge Tennessee's use of lethal injections to execute convicted murderers.