In this Oct. 13, 1999 file photo, Ricky Bell, then warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn., gives a tour of the prison’s execution chamber. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law Thursday, May 22, 2014, allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates in the event prisons are unable to obtain lethal injection drugs, which have become more and more scarce following a European-led boycott of drug sales for executions.NASHVILLE – Tennessee is “ready as needed” to use the electric chair if it can’t get the drugs used for lethal injections, the state’s top prisons official said Friday.
A corrections spokeswoman added later in the day while the state doesn’t have a supply of the drugs, authorities are confident they could acquire some. The chemicals have become scarcer following a European-led boycott of drug sales for executions.
Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law Thursday that allows the state to electrocute current and future death row inmates if it can’t obtain the drugs. It’s the first such law in the country.
“The Legislature felt very strongly we needed to have some sort of backup, in case the drugs for the lethal injection weren’t available,” Haslam told reporters after a Memorial Day ceremony near the state Capitol.
Correction Commissioner Derrick Schofield said he is comfortable with the state’s procedures for ensuring the electric chair would work. This particular chair has been used just once, seven years ago.