We better have something in place. Didn’t I read somewhere that the designer of Ol’ Sparky said his chair was torture?
[Despite public concerns voiced by the builder of Tennessee’s electric chair, Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. of Boston, that the execution apparatus would not kill Holton quickly or humanely, the device appeared to kill Holton with ruthless efficiency.]
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=57503
Fred Leuchter is pretty controversial but he was considered an expert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_A._Leuchter
Utah offers a choice between lethal injection and firing squad. Utah’s death penalty process is bogged down in court right now but it has to do with “capriciousness” of sentencing rather than method of execution.
What Tennessee may do is remove one drug from the three-drug cocktail of lethal injection.