Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick died at 7:48 p.m. CDT Thursday after Tennessee prison officials administered a lethal dose of toxic chemicals. He was 59.
His execution came after his conviction for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer.
Irick repeatedly attempted to convince courts that the drugs set for use in a lethal injection would violate his "constitutional right not to be tortured to death".
Roughly five hours before Irick's death, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied his request to delay his execution.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the decision. "In refusing to grant Irick a stay, the Court today turns a blind eye to a proven likelihood that the state of Tennessee is on the verge of inflicting several minutes of torturous pain on an inmate in its custody, while shrouding his suffering behind a veneer of paralysis," Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.
"I cannot in good conscience join in this 'rush to execute' without first seeking every assurance that our precedent permits such results ... if the law permits this execution to go forward in spite of the horrific final minutes that Irick may well experience, then we stopped being a civilized nation and accepted barbarism."
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/09/billy-ray-irick-tennessee-execution-lethal-injection/830253002/