Tennessee executes first man in nearly a decade

The US state of Tennessee used a controversial lethal injection procedure yesterday to execute a man who was convicted of raping and killing a child, after the nation's top court declined his final bid for a stay.

"I just want to say I'm really sorry. And that ... that's it," Billy Ray Irick said in his final words before prison officials in Nashville, Tennessee. He was pronounced dead at 7:48 pm local time, officials said at a press conference. Irick was the first inmate to be executed in Tennessee since 2009.

The US Supreme Court had earlier denied a stay of execution for the convict, rejecting concerns about the inmate potentially feeling sensations equivalent to being "burned alive." The high court's decision was countered with a blistering dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who questioned whether Billy Ray Irick's planned execution would be too painful and whether allowing it to proceed required accepting "barbarism."
"If the law permits this execution to go forward in spite of the horrific final minutes that Irick may well experience, then we have stopped being a civilized nation and accepted barbarism."