Officials in Tennessee She announced Friday a new method that could allow the state to resume executions after the last scheduled execution in the spring of 2022 was abruptly halted, although executions will not resume immediately.
This comes two and a half years after the state abruptly halted the execution of prisoner Oscar Smith and admitted that correctional officials did not follow their own execution protocols, according to the British Daily Mail. Associated Press.
Smith, now 74, had been scheduled to be executed for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and their teenage sons before it was cancelled.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections announced Friday that it has “completed its review of the lethal injection protocol, which will use the sole drug pentobarbital.”
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The gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogroki, File)
Details of the new protocol have not been released to the public.
Kelly Henry, head of the federal habeas corpus unit that represents many of the state's death row inmates, said the announcement is “notable for its lack of detail.”
“It is the secrecy surrounding Tennessee’s execution protocol that has allowed TDOC to carry out executions in violation of its own protocol, while simultaneously misrepresenting its actions to the courts and the public,” Henry told the Associated Press.
The decision to grant Smith a last-minute exemption from execution came after Henry requested the results of required purity and potency tests for the lethal injection drugs that were to be used to execute him.
Documents later showed that at least two people were aware that the lethal injection drugs the state intended to use had not undergone some required testing. An independent review then revealed that the state had not complied with its lethal injection process since its review in 2018.
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Federal Public Defender Kelly Henry speaks during a news conference about Tennessee death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith during a news conference in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Thursday, April 28, 2022. (AP)
Department of Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada took office in January 2023, the same month the top attorney and inspector general were terminated.
“I am confident that the lethal injection process can be conducted in accordance with administration policy and state laws,” Strada said Friday.
They have death row inmates, Henry said Ongoing federal lawsuit Challenging Tennessee's previous lethal injection protocol, which used three different drugs in series.
Prosecutors stayed the case pending the state's review and review of the procedure. The inmates' agreement with the state gives them 90 days to review the new protocol and decide whether to amend their complaints.
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The Alabama lethal injection chamber is on display on October 7, 2002, at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. (AP)
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Henry requested that no new execution dates be set while the case continues before the court.
I also highlighted that US Department of Justice She is currently reviewing the use of pentobarbital in his executions.
“We know from scientific data that pentobarbital alone leads to pulmonary edema that is similar to waterboarding,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
