The average death row inmate in Tenn. spends 19 years before sentence is carried out. The one guy has been on death row for 31 years.....ridiculous!
A Tennessee Department of Correction official confirms Lemaricus Davidson arrived at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Friday night on death row.
The jury in the Lemaricus Davidson double murder trial has recommended the death penalty for the murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.
That same jury found him guilty on each count against him, in each count choosing the most serious offense, with the exception of the direct rape of Chris Newsom.
The imposition of the death penalty puts Lemaricus Davidson on track to face death by lethal injection, which is Tennessee's default method of execution. Death row inmates who committed their offenses before January 1, 1999 can choose the electric chair.
Davidson would instead face the needle.
Tennessee's lethal injection method is a cocktail of three drugs.
The first, sodium thiopental, is an anesthetic at a dosage that essentially puts the recipient into a rapid-onset coma.
The second drug, pancuronium bromide, is a muscle relaxant at a dosage that stops the recipient's breathing.
The final drug, potassium chloride, induces cardiac arrest.
Davidson's path to the execution chamber is unlikely to be a swift one. The state of Tennessee has executed five inmates in the last decade.
Those men spent an average of 19 years on death row. That average is skewed downward slightly by Daryl Holton, who was executed after only 8 years. Holton dropped his appeals, attempted suicide while on death row, and opted for the electric chair.
Tennessee's death row inmates have a longer road to the execution chamber than the national average.
Nationwide, the average is 12 years and 9 months, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' most recent numbers, in 2007.
The state of Texas has a reputation for strong adoption of the death penalty; on average, a Texas death row inmate spends 10 years and 3 months there.
One Tennessee death row inmate, Donald Strouth, has been on death row for 31 years.
