{"id":373115,"date":"2018-08-12T19:07:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T18:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/tennessee-carries-out-first-execution-in-nearly-a-decade\/"},"modified":"2018-08-12T19:07:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T18:07:09","slug":"tennessee-carries-out-first-execution-in-nearly-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/tennessee-carries-out-first-execution-in-nearly-a-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee carries out first execution in nearly a decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Tennessee carries out first execution in nearly a decade<\/h2>\n<h4>Inmate \u201cgulped for an extended period of time\u201d and was \u201cchoking,\u201d \u201cgasping\u201d<\/h4>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Kate Randall<br \/>\n    <br \/>11 August 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>Tennessee executed Billy Ray Irick on Thursday in the first execution in the state in nearly a decade. Irick, 59, was convicted and sentenced to death for the brutal 1985 rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer in Knoxville. He spent more than three decades on death row.<\/p>\n<p>Irick\u2019s lethal injection was allowed to proceed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville after both the Tennessee and US Supreme Courts denying his request for a stay. Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, did not exercise his power to grant Irick clemency.<\/p>\n<p>Irick\u2019s attorneys had argued both that their client should not be put to death because he suffered from severe mental illness, and that one of the drugs to be used in his lethal injection could cause severe pain. There is evidence that Irick did indeed suffer a torturous death.<\/p>\n<p>Journalists witnessing the execution reported that the blinds between the witness room and the death chamber were opened at 7:26 p.m. local time. Asked if he had any final words, Irick at first said \u201cNo,\u201d and then said, \u201cI just want to say I\u2019m really sorry and that, that\u2019s it.\u201d The lethal injection drugs then began to flow.<\/p>\n<p>A minute later, the Associated Press (AP) reported, his eyes closed and snoring and heavy breathing could be heard. At 7:34 p.m. there was \u201ccoughing, huffing and deep breaths,\u201d and an attendant called out to him and grabbed his shoulder to check for consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), federal public defender Kelley Henry said Irick exhibited signs of pulmonary edema (fluid filling the lungs) during the execution,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/08\/11\/exec-a11.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Tennessee carries out first execution in nearly a decade Inmate \u201cgulped for an extended period of time\u201d and was \u201cchoking,\u201d \u201cgasping\u201d By Kate Randall 11 August 2018 Tennessee executed Billy Ray Irick on Thursday in the first execution in the state in nearly a decade. Irick, 59, was convicted and sentenced to death for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-373115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}