With a day left before Tennessee resumes executions, Gov. Bill Lee is declining to give death row inmates a reprieve as they challenge the state’s new protocol for lethal injections.
Attorneys for Oscar Smith, who is to be put to death Thursday for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and her two sons, said the governor denied the request this week of death row prisoners even though a trial on the execution process won’t be held until January 2026. Inmates are raising questions about the protocol’s constitutionality and say “serious questions” remain about the safety and efficacy of the lethal chemicals and the execution team’s qualifications.
Lee put a hold on executions in 2022, just minutes before Smith was to be executed, because of errors in the Tennessee Department of Correction protocol.
“Gov. Lee, has in the past, used his power to prevent Tennesseans from making irreparable mistakes. We had hoped he would do it again. There is no principled reason to allow the state to resume executions before the court has an opportunity to hear all the evidence about whether TDOC is sourcing its lethal chemicals legally, whether those chemicals are contaminated, unexpired, and undiluted, and whether the execution team is capable of carrying out its duties competently and constitutionally. Tennessee can do better than this,” said Kelley Henry, an attorney for the prisoners.
A Davidson County chancellor turned down the state’s request May 15 to dismiss most of the prisoners’ claims, including a constitutional challenge to the lethal injection protocol. A court order also is pending on a state request for a protective order that would shield the identity of the supplier of lethal drugs and execution team members.
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