Tennessee inmate asks US Supreme Court to halt execution

NASHVILLE – A condemned Tennessee inmate is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his Thursday execution and consider his claims that the electric chair is unconstitutional but the state’s lethal injection method is worse.

Attorneys for David Earl Miller filed a petition with the high court Monday after a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the inmate.

Miller has chosen to die by electrocution, the second Tennessee inmate in just more than a month to make that choice. His attorneys have argued that Tennessee’s preferred execution method of midazolam-based lethal injection cause a prolonged and torturous death.

The 6th Circuit ruled that Miller could not challenge electrocution because he chose that method. His attorneys argue the choice was coerced by the threat of something even worse.