Lethal correction

In the Scene, Woods gets into the fight over the three-drug cocktail: There is a clear-cut solution that's acknowledged even by lawyers for condemned prisoners. Two states -- Ohio and Washington -- have changed to a single-drug method. Executioners simply keep giving the inmate a barbiturate until he is dead. Ohio has executed nine prisoners this way.

A special committee appointed by then-Gov. Phil Bredesen recommended four years ago that Tennessee make the switch, but the Corrections Department commissioner, George Little, overruled that decision. In federal court for one lawsuit, Little testified he was worried about "political ramifications," meaning it could lead to delays in executions as inmates filed lawsuits to test the new procedure. The opposite has occurred: Because the state refused to change, executions have been stopped.