By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
Associated Press
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday halted the executions of four death row inmates to allow a lower court to examine the constitutionality of the state’s new lethal injection procedure.
Convicted killer Stephen Michael West was set to die by lethal injection at 10 p.m. CST Tuesday for the 1986 stabbing deaths of Wanda Romines and her 15-year-old daughter Sheila Romines.
Earlier this month, the state’s high court granted West a temporary stay so a lower court could hear evidence in his lawsuit claiming the first drug in Tennessee’s three-drug lethal injection protocol does not adequately anesthetize prisoners, violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.