US state set to execute first inmate in 5 years in January using single-drug method
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee’s first execution in nearly five years — and the first using a new single-drug method — has been scheduled for January.
Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter told The Associated Press on Thursday that 55-year-old Billy R. Irick is to be executed Jan. 15.
According to the state Supreme Court clerk’s office, the execution order was filed Tuesday.
Irick has been on death row since 1986 for the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl.
Tennessee announced last month that it’s switching from a three-drug lethal injection method to using only the sedative pentobarbital to put an inmate to death.
The last inmate executed by injection in the state was Cecil Johnson, on Dec. 2, 2009.
There are 79 inmates on Tennessee’s death row, including one woman.
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