Ricky Bell, then the warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, gives a tour of the prison's execution chamber on Oct. 13, 1999. Both the electric chair and the lethal injection gurney are kept in the room until the time is near for a prisoner to be executed and the one not used is taken out.A group of 10 death row inmates suing over lethal injection in Tennessee argued on Friday that the state's backup plan -- the electric chair -- is an unconstitutional "torture device."
The inmates are locked in a battle with the state over whether they have a right to know how they will be killed and who will do the killing. Their lawsuit stems from a 2013 law that makes nearly all information about lethal injection secret. Friday's lawsuit targets a 2014 law Gov. Bill Haslam signed that makes the electric chair the state's official backup if lethal injection is declared unconstitutional or if the necessary drugs are unavailable.
Attorneys for the inmates say that no other state -- or any government in the world -- imposes electrocution on the condemned.
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