Tennessee Chiefs announced on Friday a new process that would allow the government to resume executions after the last planned execution was abruptly halted in the spring of 2022, although the executions will not start immediately.
This comes two-and-a-half years after the state abruptly halted the execution of inmate Oscar Smith and admitted that corrections officers were not following their own execution protocols, according to Associated Press.
Smith, now 74, was scheduled to be sentenced to death for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and teenage sons before it was overturned.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections announced Friday that it has “completed an update to the lethal injection protocol, which will use the single drug pentobarbital.”
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The gurney in the execution room at the Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
Details about the new protocol have not been made public.
Kelley Henry, director of the public defender's habeas division that represents many inmates on the state's death row, said the announcement was “remarkable for its lack of detail.”
“The secrecy surrounding Tennessee's homicide regulations is what has allowed TDOC to carry out executions in violation of their regulations while at the same time discrediting their actions to the courts and the public,” Henry told The Associated Press.
The decision to grant Smith a last-minute reprieve from execution came after Henry requested the results of required purity and strength tests for the lethal injection drugs intended to be used on him. kill.
Documents later showed that at least two people knew that the lethal injection drugs the government was planning to use had never undergone the necessary tests. An independent review revealed that the government has not followed up on its lethal injection process since it was updated in 2018.
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Federal Public Defender Kelley 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 Liberty Commissioner Frank Strada took office in January 2023, the same month its attorney general and inspector general were fired.
“I hope that the lethal injection process can continue in accordance with the department's policy and state regulations,” Strada said Friday.
Henry said the prisoners in the penal cities have an ongoing federal case challenging Tennessee's first lethal injection protocol, which used three different drugs in series.
Prosecutors put the case on hold pending a federal review and settlement. The prisoners' agreement with the government gives them 90 days to review the new regulations and see if they can settle their grievances.
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Alabama's lethal injection chamber is shown on Oct. 7, 2002, Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. (AP)
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Henry asked for no new sentencing dates while the trial continues.
He also emphasized that US Department of Justice is investigating the use of pentobarbital in its operation.
“We know from scientific data that the drug pentobarbital alone results in pulmonary edema that has been compared to water,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.