June 2, 2005: ACLU Media Alert - Use of Lethal Injection Chemical Blocks Public's First Amendment Right to Know - ACLU-TN Files Friend of Court Brief

For Immediate Release
Thursday, 2 June 2005

For More Information, Contact:
Hedy Weinberg, ACLU-TN Executive Director

Tennessee’s Use of Lethal Injection Chemical Blocks Public's First Amendment Right to Know -- ACLU-TN and MTSU's Sidelines File Friend-of-the-Court Brief

NASHVILLE - The public and the press have the First Amendment right to meaningfully witness and gather accurate information about Tennessee's execution procedure, said the ACLU of Tennessee and Sidelines, the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) student newspaper, in their amicus curiae brief filed in the civil case challenging Tennessee’s method of lethal injection(Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman v. Bredesen). The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear the case on Wednesday, June 8, 2005.

Mr. Abdur'Rahman's execution date is currently stayed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit pending resolution of procedural issues that may determine whether he will ever be given the opportunity to present his claims of prosecutorial misconduct to a federal court. These procedural issues are currently before the United States Supreme Court.

In their amicus brief, ACLU-TN and Sidelines focus on the use of a paralytic chemical “Pavulon,” which can mask a prisoner’s expression of pain by inhibiting all voluntary muscle movement. Many states, including Tennessee, have banned Pavulon in the euthanization of animals because it prevents the individual performing the euthanasia from knowing whether the animal was properly anesthetized.

“Our concern is that Pavulon acts as a “chemical veil,” to prevent those witnessing the execution from knowing whether the condemned inmate is suffering excruciating pain,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “The use of pavulon interferes with the public’s right to know and could conceal cruel or unusual punishment by the state, which is forbidden by the Constitution.”

Stephen Zralek, an ACLU-TN Cooperating Attorney and member of the Law Firm of Bone McAllister Norton PLLC, drafted the ACLU-TN and Sidelines friend-of- the-court brief. "The purpose of the First Amendment is to ensure that the public is sufficiently informed so that it may meaningfully participate in our democracy. By blocking an accurate view of the pain that lethal injection causes, Pavulon deprives the public of sufficient information to participate in the public debate of whether execution by lethal injection comports with evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society," he explained.

A recent Sidelines' editorial explained "By joining the ACLU in this brief, we are not making any kind of statement about the death penalty itself or the case of Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman. As a group, many of us have very strong, and contrary, positions on the morality of the death penalty. However, the majority of us agreed that for the state to punish an inmate in this way violates our right to report accurately on the process. In many cases, the press has to serve as surrogates for the public when the access is restricted. The press cannot serve the public in this manner when important information about the process is hidden from our eyes."

Tennessee's lethal injection procedure requires the administration of three chemicals to execute condemned inmates. They are sodium pentothal, a fast-acting barbiturate; second, pancuronium bromide (“Pavulon”), a chemical paralytic agent; and third, potassium chloride, a compound that causes cardiac arrest.

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