Free Republic

A Tennessee convicted child rapist and killer on Wednesday picked a deluxe burger combo as his last meal before his execution -- the first in the state in nearly a decade. Billy Ray Irick, 59, chose the combo that included a super deluxe burger, onion rings and a Pepsi soft drink, the Tennessee Department of Correction said Wednesday. Irick, who is being held at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, will eat his last meal before his execution, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday. The name of the restaurant that prepared the meal was not released “out of...

An appellate court is paving the way for executions of death row inmates, including two from East Tennessee. The Tennessee Court of Appeals last week issued an opinion affirming the decision of Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman to uphold a new procedure set by the state Department of Correction to try to ensure a death row inmate is unconscious before fatal drugs are administered under the state's three-drug lethal injection process. "Plaintiffs have simply failed to carry their heavy burden to demonstrate that the lethal injection protocol as revised in November 2010 constitutes wanton exposure to an objectively intolerable risk...