The Latest: Inmate moved to death watch as execution looms
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Latest on Thursday's scheduled execution of a Tennessee inmate (all times local):
1 p.m.
Tennessee inmate David Earl Miller has been moved to the state's death watch ahead of his scheduled execution this week.
The Tennessee Department of Correction says in a statement that the 61-year-old inmate was moved early Tuesday to a cell beside the execution chamber at a Nashville prison. He will be under 24-hour observation ahead of Thursday's execution.
Miller, who has been on death row for 36 years, was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of 23-year-old Lee Standifer in Knoxville.
Miller chose to be put to death in the electric chair after a lower court ruled against his claim that Tennessee's lethal injection protocol causes a prolonged, torturous death. Miller has since appealed the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution. The court hasn't immediately responded to his claims.
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12:30 a.m.
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 61-year-old inmate.
Miller, who has been on death row for 36 years, was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of 23-year-old Lee Standifer in Knoxville.
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.
