Judge rules Tennessee’s lethal injection procedure unconstitutional

NASHVILLE, Tenn. | A federal judge has ruled that Tennessee’s procedure for lethal injections is cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger’s ruling could halt an execution scheduled for next week.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office said the office will decide whether to appeal after reviewing the decision.

Death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison was scheduled to be executed early next Wednesday for the 1983 beating death of an elderly woman.

The order does not give him a stay of execution. The ruling says the death sentence remains until it can be lawfully executed by a valid method of execution.