Bishops, faith leaders condemn Tennessee's first execution in nine years

By Theresa Laurence

NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (CNS) — Two Tennessee Catholic bishops called the execution of Billy Ray Irick Aug.
9 “unnecessary.”

“Tonight’s execution of Billy
Ray Irick was unnecessary. It served no useful purpose,” Bishop J. Mark
Spalding of Nashville and Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville said in a
statement after Irick was executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institute in
Nashville.

“In this time of sadness, that
began many years ago with the tragic and brutal death of Paula Dyer and
continues with another death tonight, we believe that only Jesus Christ can
bring consolation and peace,” the bishops said. “We continue to pray
for Paula and for her family. And we also pray for Billy Ray Irick, that his
final human thoughts were of remorse and sorrow for we believe that only Christ
can serve justice. “

They also said they prayed that the
people of Tennessee “may all come to cherish the dignity that his love
instills in every person — at every stage of life.”

Irick, 59, died at 7:48 p.m. CDT after
Tennessee prison officials administered a lethal combination of chemicals. According
to press reports, before he died Irick was coughing, choking and gasping for
air and his face turned dark purple as the lethal drugs took effect.

He was the first person executed in
Tennessee since 2009 and the first person executed in the United States since Pope
Francis announced Aug. 2 that he had ordered a change in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church declaring that the death penalty is inadmissible in all cases.

Irick was convicted in 1986 for the
murder and rape of 7-year-old Paula Dyer of Knoxville and had been on death row
ever since.

Attorneys for Irick had filed a
last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay of his execution
until their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s lethal
injection protocol could be heard by the state Court of Appeals.

Five hours before the execution, the
Supreme Court rejected the appeal, with a dissent filed by Justice Sonia
Sotomayor.

“In refusing to grant Irick a
stay, the court today turns a blind eye to a proven likelihood that the state
of Tennessee is on the verge of inflicting several minutes of torturous pain on
an inmate in its custody, while shrouding his suffering behind a veneer of
paralysis,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.

On a humid night at sunset,
spiritual leaders led prayers and read Scripture to the group. Others who knew
Irick from visiting him on death row shared memories about him.

“Being in that physical
proximity, knowing that behind all the concrete walls and barbed wire a killing
is going on is a very sobering thing,” said Deacon James Booth, director
of prison ministry for the Diocese of Nashville, who stood outside the prison
with a group of about 20 fellow anti-death penalty activists as Irick was
executed.

Before the execution, Deacon Booth was
planning how he would minister to death-row inmates in the coming days. “I
will let them speak,” he said, to say whatever they want in order to
process the emotions and the grief they might feel, akin to losing a family
member.

While the men on death row are
guilty of horrific crimes including rape and murder, Deacon Booth believes, and
the Catholic Church teaches, that they still retain their human dignity and
capacity for forgiveness and redemption.

Tennessee’s bishops, in the weeks
before the execution, issued two statements calling for the end of the death
penalty and condemning Irick’s execution.

Bishops Spalding, Stika and Martin D.
Holley of Memphis also wrote a letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam in July,
urging him to halt Irick’s execution and the three other executions scheduled
before the end of the year.

Irick’s execution had been stayed
twice before, in 2010 and 2014, as attorneys argued the state’s lethal
injection protocol constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” and
that Irick’s history of severe mental illness was not taken into adequate
consideration during his sentencing or throughout the lengthy appeals process.

The timing of the execution, just
one week after Pope Francis announced that he was officially changing the Catechism
to oppose capital punishment in all instances, is disheartening to Deacon
Booth.

“When the head of the largest
Christian denomination in the world speaks out forcefully against the death
penalty ‘ that should be kind of a force that should stay the hand of revenge,
and it’s hard to see this as anything but revenge,” Deacon Booth said of
Irick’s execution. 

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Laurence is a staff writer for the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville.

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