A death row inmate has chosen to be executed in an electric chair dubbed "Old Smokey" instead of being injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs. With just hours to live, Stephen Michael West, 56, decided he wanted to die by electrocution for the brutal double murder of a mum and her teenage daughter. West, who has ordered a Philly cheesesteak and French fries as his final meal, will be the third death row prisoner in Tennessee to die in the electric chair in just 10 months. The other two said they wanted to avoid lethal injection - following several botched executions - because it would be a more painful and prolonged death. Lethal injection is Tennessee's default method of execution, but those sentenced to death before January 1999 can request to be die in the electric chair which has been called "Old Smokey" in the past. A spokesperson for the state's Department of Correction said: "The method of execution for inmate Stephen West will be electrocution, per the inmate’s request." Governor Bill Lee has said he would not stop the execution. West is being executed for fatally stabbing Wanda Romines, 51, and her daughter Sheila Romines, 15, in their Union County home in 1986. Both had their hands bound behind their backs. Sheila had been stabbed 17 times in the stomach and 14 of those wounds were consistent with “torture-type cuts", the Tennessean reported. West was also found guilty of raping Sheila before she died. At his trial, he blamed his 17-year-old McDonald's co-worker, who went to high school with Sheila, for the murders. The co-defendant blamed West, who was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping. West's teenage co-defendant was also convicted, but he was sent to jail. He couldn't be sentenced to death because he was a minor. The courts have rejected West's appeals. He is among the death row prisoners who unsuccessfully challenged Tennesse's lethal injection protocol. The inmates claimed it amounted to unconstitutional torture because the first drug, a sedative called midazolam, doesn't dull the pain caused by the second and third drugs. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now In the hours before he is put to death, West will be served a Philly cheesesteak and French fries as a final meal. Tennessee gives inmates $20 (£16.50) to pay for a special last meal. In December last year, David Earl Miller, 61, was executed in the electric chair after he declined to be killed by lethal injection. Edmund Zagorski, 63, was electrocuted in November last year. Before Miller's execution, the electric chair had not been used in the US since 2013. Both had argued that a lethal injection involving midazolam would lead to a painful and prolonged death.
Death row,Capital punishment,Death Penalty,Murder,Crime,Prisons,
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