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can someone please help me understand this article on lethal injections in Tennessee?

DONT JUST GIVE ME AN OPINION BECAUSE THAT IS NOT HELPING ok so i understand parts of what is going on here but i'm confused about whether it is the injections that are not allowed or if it is other methods that is not allowed. And also what is the new protocal they keep talking about and what is tennessee's current execution method???? can you please help me brifly summarize this NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Tennessee's new lethal injection procedures are cruel and unusual punishment, interrupting plans to execute a killer next week. ADVERTISEMENT The protocol "presents a substantial risk of unnecessary pain" and violates death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison's constitutional protections under the Eighth Amendment, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said. The new protocol, released in April, does not ensure that inmates are properly anesthetized before the lethal injection is administered, Trauger said, which could "result in a terrifying, excruciating death." A spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office said officials are reviewing the ruling and haven't decided whether to appeal. Gov. Phil Bredesen's office had no immediate comment. Harbison was scheduled to be executed Sept. 26 for beating an elderly woman to death during a burglary in 1983. Trauger did not issue a stay or throw out the death sentence for Harbison, who has lost all his appeals. He can be legally executed once the state adopts a valid method of execution, she said. Another federal judge in Nashville this year ordered a delay in the execution of convicted killer Philip Workman, citing the likelihood that the state's new guidelines could still cause unconstitutional pain and suffering. But a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that temporary restraining order, and Workman was executed by lethal injection May 9. Bredesen, a Democrat, in February placed a 90-day moratorium on executions because of several glaring problems with the state's execution guidelines, including conflicting instructions that mixed lethal injection instructions with those for the electric chair. George Little, State Department of Correction commissioner, adopted the new protocol despite having knowledge about the remaining risks of excessive pain for inmates, Trauger said. A spokeswoman for Little did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Little did not give enough consideration to a recommendation to discard the standard three-drug lethal injection cocktail in favor of a single drug method, Trauger said. Current training and medical expertise are not sufficient to ensure a painless execution, she said. Most states use three drugs — thiopental, an anesthetic; pancuronium bromide, a nerve blocker and muscle paralyzer; and potassium chloride, a drug to stop the heart. Each is supposed to be capable of killing by itself, but if not, the anesthetic is supposed to render the inmate unconscious while the other drugs do the job. Lethal injection has been adopted by 37 states as a cheaper and more humane alternative to electrocution, gas chambers and other execution methods. But at least 11 states suspended its use after opponents alleged it was ineffective and cruel. The issue came to a head last year in California when a federal judge ordered that doctors assist in killing Michael Morales, who was convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl. Doctors refused, and legal arguments continue. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month lifted a more than year-old stay on executions in Missouri, refusing to block capital punishment while a death-row inmate asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the state's form of lethal injection to be an unconstitutionally cruel punishment. Tennessee executed convicted child killer Daryl Holton last week in its first electrocution since 1960. Bredesen on Friday commuted a death sentence for Michael Joe Boyd because of "grossly inadequate" legal representation during post-conviction hearings. Boyd, who now goes by Mika'eel Abdullah Abdus-Samad, was convicted of murdering a man during an armed robbery in 1986. The death sentence was commuted to life without possibility of parole

Public Comments

1. The new protocol is not giving the person drugs that will knock them out before the lethal drugs begin to kill the body. The inmate could feel physical and mental pain during the dying process because they would be awake and know what was going on and could feel the pain in the body as the drugs were taking effect, so they want to stop the injections until they feel it won't violate the inmates rights by causing him too much pain or anguish. Gas Chambers and Electric chairs cost alot and they don't want to use those so that is why they use injections mostly. Plus it has been considered an easier death since you are asleep and don't know what is happening. Most states have different options for what to use for an execution, and they usually give the inmate a choice.
2. Yeah, what they're saying is that the fact that the current technique doesn't make sure the anesthetic takes effect to knock the person completely out before the other drugs kill him, it could result in his experiencing pain and suffering. Sure beats getting electrocuted. Especially how they spend half the night before your appt with Old Sparky TESTING IT OVER AND OVER, and you are right there listening to it and watching the lights dim out!!! TORRRRRTURRREEEEEE!!! Capital punishment is f*cking hainous, nasty, and uncivilized; just lock these people up and let it be for godsakes.
3. Tennessee has new lethal injection protocols, they chose to disregard the 3 drug method used by most states with capital punishment in favor of a single drug (the heart stopper). However they can't execute death row prisoners with it because a federal judge has ruled that this single drug lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment due to the lack of proper anesthetization before the lethal dose is administered to stop the prisoner's heart. Most states use the three drug method: 1) Anesthetic which makes the prisoner pain free and renders him unconscious. 2) a drug which relaxes the lungs to where the prisoner ceases breathing. 3) The fatal drug which stops the heart. Without a heartbeat the attending physician officially declares the prisoner dead.
4. I agree with the judge -- I think I answered your question in a different category. Whether or not lethal injection causes excrutiating agony that the witness are not aware of, the death penatly system itself should be examined. You don't have to condone brutal crimes or want the criminals who commit them avoid a harsh punishment to ask whether the death penalty prevents or even reduces crime and whether it risks killing innocent people. What about the risk of executing innocent people? 124 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. Doesn't DNA keep new cases like these from happening? DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. Doesn't the death penalty prevent others from committing murder? No reputable study shows the death penalty to be a deterrent. To be a deterrent a punishment must be sure and swift. The death penalty is neither. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in states that do not. So, what are the alternatives? Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. It is sure and swift and rarely appealed. Life without parole is less expensive than the death penalty. But isn't the death penalty cheaper than keeping criminals in prison? The death penalty costs much more than life in prison, mostly because of the legal process. When the death penalty is a possible sentence, extra costs mount up even before trial, continuing through the uniquely complicated trial (actually 2 separate trials, one to decide guilt and the second to decide the punishment) in death penalty cases, and appeals. What about the very worst crimes? The death penalty isn’t reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but rather for defendants with the worst lawyers. When is the last time a wealthy person was sentenced to death, let alone executed?? Doesn't the death penalty help families of murder victims? Not necessarily. Murder victim family members across the country argue that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative. So, why don't we speed up the process? Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. If the process is speeded up we are sure to execute an innocent person.