US to electrocute death row inmates for execution

NASHVILLE, Tenn: As much of the US debates the use of lethal injections against a backdrop of drug scarcity and botched executions, Tennessee has found an alternative: The electric chair.
The state’s Republican governor, Bill Haslam, approved a law Thursday allowing Tennessee to electrocute death row inmates if prisons lack the correct drugs. These have become increasingly difficult to obtain because of a European-led boycott on drug sales for executions.
Tennessee has become the first US state to reintroduce the electric chair as an execution method without giving the doomed prisoner an option, according to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes executions and tracks the issue.
“There are states that allow inmates to choose. But it is a very different matter for a state to impose a method like electrocution,” Dieter said. “No other state has gone so far.” Dieter forecast legal challenges if Tennessee seeks to electrocute a prisoner.