A Day in Paradise

Fire extinguisher called for in lethal injections

Tennessee’s procedure manual for executing prisoners is a jumble of conflicting instructions that mixes new lethal injection instructions with those for the old electric chair, an Associated Press review found.

Before a lethal injection, the 100-page “Manual of Execution” instructs prison officials to begin by shaving the condemned prisoner’s head — as if preparing him for electrocution. They would also need a fire extinguisher nearby, it says.

Gov. Phil Bredesen suspended four executions last week, calling the document a “cut-and-paste job” that needs significant revision. He set a May 2 deadline for the overhaul.

The mistakes were added last summer when Tennessee decided to update the manual after a death row inmate asked to be electrocuted, Correction Commissioner George Little said. The state’s last execution took place in June, before the manual was revised.

George Little justified the manual by explaining that they copied the text from wikipedia.