Tennessee executes man for 1985 rape, murder of seven-year-old girl

By Jon Herskovitz

 

Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick, appears in a booking photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Corrections, August 8, 2018. Tennessee Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - Tennessee conducted its first execution in nearly a decade on Thursday, administering a lethal injection to a man convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl he was babysitting.

 

Billy Irick, 59, who had spent more than three decades on death row, was put to death at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Tylee Tracer said. Pronounced dead at 7:48 p.m. Central time, he became the 15th inmate executed this year in the United States and the first in Tennessee since 2009.

 

He was convicted of raping and strangling Paula Dyer in Knoxville. Irick had been a boarder in the home where the girl lived with her mother, stepfather and siblings.

 

Executions in Tennessee had been put on hold for years due in large part to lawsuits from death row inmates challenging the state's combination of lethal drugs and death chamber protocols.

 

Hours before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition by Irick's lawyers to spare his life. The lawyers argued that he has suffered from psychosis for his entire life and putting him to death would violate legal norms barring the execution of people with severe mental disorders or disabilities.

 

Tennessee state prosecutors have said Irick knew what he was doing was wrong, was competent to be executed and did not properly raise the mental illness claim in state court.

 

Irick and other death row inmates have been part of a lawsuit that seeks to block use of Tennessee's lethal injection mix, which contains the sedative midazolam. The valium-like drug has been used in executions in other states, a few of which were botched.

 

Midazolam does not achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery and is unsuitable for lethal injections, lawyers for the inmates have argued.

 

Irick's lawyers had argued that his execution should have been halted to give an appeals court time to render a decision on that matter.

 

Casting the lone dissenting vote in the Supreme Court's decision denying Irick a reprieve, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that if midazolam does not work, an inmate could suffer harm in violation of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishments.

 

"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," she wrote.

 

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Diane Craft, Jonathan Oatis, Toni Reinhold)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-10

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

"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," she wrote.

By raping and murdering a 7 year-old, this piece of filth who has been languishing on death row at taxpayers expense for over 30 years was already quite comfortable with uncivilized behavior and barbarism.

 

For Sotomayor and other liberal's wringing their hands, cruel an unusual murders deserve reciprocal punishment.

They should have topped him 30 year ago 

Sick, sick, sick.

Good.

dear do-gooders,
if modern methods are not deemed as suitable, there were a few very effective methods in use before.

I just love the do gooders who say the death penalty is no deterant,oh yes it is they can never get out and do it again ,

 

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2 hours ago, ivor bigun said:

I just love the do gooders who say the death penalty is no deterant,oh yes it is they can never get out and do it again ,

 

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While feeling no sympathy for this filth, the death penalty does not work as a deterrent. 

While feeling no sympathy for this filth, the death penalty does not work as a deterrent. 

It has for him

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2 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

It has for him

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No it hasn’t. 

 

It has ended his worthless life. 

 

However, that is not what deterrent means.  

Edited August 10, 20187 yr by Bluespunk

33 years on death row?  Execution must have been a relief. 

7 hours ago, NanLaew said:

By raping and murdering a 7 year-old, this piece of filth who has been languishing on death row at taxpayers expense for over 30 years was already quite comfortable with uncivilized behavior and barbarism.

 

For Sotomayor and other liberal's wringing their hands, cruel an unusual murders deserve reciprocal punishment.

It all depends what one considers reciprocal punishment, If one considers reciprocal punishment ending ones miserable life and dispatching   him to the peaceful slumber of death and in the process spending millions of dollars to do it then YES, others might think that throwing him in a dark hole, depriving of all liberty and exposing him to the pleasures afforded to pedophiles in jail for the rest of his life , to be a more appropriate punisment

2 hours ago, ivor bigun said:

I just love the do gooders who say the death penalty is no deterant,oh yes it is they can never get out and do it again ,

 

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since he has already done it, No deterrent for him

 

4 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

It has for him

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No it was not, it never stooped him from doing it.

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Midazolam does not achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery

Then use the dope that DOES achieve uncosciousness like they use in hospitals. You see the Doctor ask the patient to count from 10 to 1, and they usually get to 6 before they are asleep. On the other hand, does it matter.

No it hasn’t. 

 

It has ended his worthless life. 

 

However, that is not what deterrent means.  

You mean deterrent to other people,i mean to him ,now if that doesnt deter him nothing will,that is hete in Britain he would have been out in 20 years or so ,could have done it again , also how can we prove its not a deterant ,how many people have not gone on to kill because they were afraid of the consequences ? No one knows so maybe it is a deterent .

Mind you if they had put him in solitary with no books no tv and no one to talk to for life ,i could have gone along with that

 

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3 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

You mean deterrent to other people,i mean to him ,now if that doesnt deter him nothing will

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The death penalty is supposed to deter others from committing the same crime. 

 

The fact is, the statistics show it doesn’t work. 

No it was not, it never stooped him from doing it.

Stopped him getting out and doing it again

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The death penalty is supposed to deter others from committing the same crime. 
 
The fact is, the statistics show it doesn’t work. 

Yea right statistics.so completely reliable,"there are lies damned lies and statistics"

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34 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

While feeling no sympathy for this filth, the death penalty does not work as a deterrent. 

It does if it is carried out in a manor not lasting 30 years or more .Six months then death.and it is far less costly then keeping and feeding people 20 to thirty years.

2 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

Yea right statistics.so completely reliable,"there are lies damned lies and statistics"

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Read up on the findings of how effective the death penalty is as a deterrent. 

 

It doesn’t work. 

4 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Read up on the findings of how effective the death penalty is as a deterrent. 

 

It doesn’t work. 

So what? Putting these people to death is good for society and also real justice for the victims and their families, which is really what this is all about.

14 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

The death penalty is supposed to deter others from committing the same crime. 

 

The fact is, the statistics show it doesn’t work. 

I am not so sure about that so lets just keep killing scum like this till we have more info. That is the way things are done now a days right.Do not accept any statements till everything is proven beyond a doubt.

8 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Read up on the findings of how effective the death penalty is as a deterrent. 

 

It doesn’t work. 

One could see it as removal of filth.

1 minute ago, cyberfarang said:

So what? Putting these people to death is good for society and also real justice for the victims and their families, which is really what this is all about.

Whilst feeling no sympathy for this piece of filth, I still believe it is wrong for a state to kill its citizens. 

3 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

I am not so sure about that so lets just keep killing scum like this till we have more info. That is the way things are done now a days right.Do not accept any statements till everything is proven beyond a doubt.

It doesn’t work as a deterrent. 

2 minutes ago, wabothai said:

One could see it as removal of filth.

Maybe, but I still oppose the use of the death penalty. 

 

I’m not shedding tears for this man, but I’d have locked him up and thrown away the key if it was my decision. 

23 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

The death penalty is supposed to deter others from committing the same crime. 

 

The fact is, the statistics show it doesn’t work. 

i expect jail sentences are their to deter crime but that doesnt work either, and they go on to re-offend

at least he is not able to do that

1 minute ago, cookieqw said:

i expect jail sentences are their to deter crime but that doesnt work either, and they go on to re-offend

at least he is not able to do that

No he won’t. 

 

I still don't support the death penalty. 

 

I believe in punishment for crimes and gaol sentences serve as that.

 

However, I don’t kid myself they deter others from committing similar crimes. 

27 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

The death penalty is supposed to deter others from committing the same crime. 

 

The fact is, the statistics show it doesn’t work. 

Additionally, there are obviously folks who cannot control their sexual desires for children and go right ahead and rape children etc., regardless of the danger of death or any other penalties / punishments.

 

Plus, there are probably many parents, everywhere, who have had their children raped etc., who get some form of closure to know the perpetrator has been executed. 

 

 

 

Maybe, but I still oppose the use of the death penalty. 
 
I’m not shedding tears for this man, but I’d have locked him up and thrown away the key if it was my decision. 

Thrown away the key? You know that in Britain he would live a quite decent life watching tv .doing the gym, 3 meals a day nice and wsrm ,medical help and out in 20 years .no kill the scum and unlike you my heart will not bleed

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Just now, scorecard said:

Additionally, there are obviously folks who cannot control their sexual desires for children and go right ahead and rape children etc., regardless of the danger of death or any other penalties / punishments.

 

Plus, there are probably many parents, everywhere, who have had their children raped etc., who get some form of closure to know the perpetrator has been executed. 

 

 

 

All true, but I still cannot accept it is right for the state to execute citizens. 

 

I wouldn’t campaign for clemency on the part of those who acted like this filth, but I would call for their death either.