Tennessee has a new execution method, 2.5 years after last scheduled execution abruptly halted

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — More than 2 years after Tennessee abruptly halted the execution of inmate Oscar Smith — admitting that correction officials were not following their own execution protocols — the state has announced a new method that could allow it to resume executions halted since May 2022. But that won’t happen right away.

The Tennessee Department of Correction announced in a brief statement Friday it had “completed its revision of the lethal injection protocol, which will utilize the single drug pentobarbital.” The Department did not immediately release the new protocol to the public or give any further details.

Kelley Henry, chief of the federal public defender’s habeas unit that represents many of Tennessee’s death row inmates, said the announcement was “notable for its lack of detail.”

“The secrecy which shrouds the execution protocol in Tennessee is what allowed TDOC to perform executions in violation of their own protocol while simultaneously misrepresenting their actions to the courts and the public,” Henry said in a text message to The Associated Press.

Smith’s 11th hour reprieve from execution came after Henry requested the results of required purity and potency tests for the lethal injection drugs that were to be used on him. Documents obtained through a public records request later showed that at least two people knew that the lethal injection drugs the state planned to use hadn’t undergone some required testing. A subsequent independent review found the state had has not complied with its own lethal injection process ever since it was revised in 2018.

Commissioner Frank Strada took over the Correction Department in January 2023, the same month its top attorney and inspector general were fired.

In announcing the new protocol on Friday, Strada said, “I am confident the lethal injection process can proceed in compliance with departmental policy and state laws.”

Henry noted that death row inmates have an ongoing lawsuit in federal court challenging Tennessee’s previous lethal injection protocol, which used three different drugs in series. They put the case on hold pending the state’s review and revision of the procedure. Their agreement with the state gives them 90 days to look over the new protocol and decide whether to amend their complaint to challenge it.

Henry said no new execution dates should be set while their court case is ongoing. She also noted that the U.S. Department of Justice is currently reviewing the use of pentobarbital in its executions.

“We know from the scientific data that single drug pentobarbital results in pulmonary edema which has been likened to waterboarding,” she said.

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