Tennessee brings back electric chair for death row

As much of the US debates the use of lethal injections against a backdrop of drug scarcity and botched executions, Tennessee has found an alternative — the electric chair.

The state’s Republican governor, Bill Haslam, has approved a law allowing Tennessee to electrocute death row inmates if prisons lack the correct drugs.

These have become increasingly difficult to obtain because of a European-led boycott on drug sales for executions.