Image Credit: Josh Rushing / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –
After Governor Bill Lee ordered a stay of all executions in 2022 amidst legal scrutiny of the state’s lethal injection protocols, the first prisoner execution in Tennessee since 2020 is scheduled for next week.
In January of this year, the Department of Corrections (DOC) released its revised execution manual detailing its new lethal injection protocol.
The 44-page manual calls for a new one-drug protocol instead of the previous three-drug cocktail, objections to which spurred Gov. Lee’s suspensions on executions and subsequent order to review the DOC’s injection protocol.
Critics of the previous injection methodology claimed the chemicals used in lethal injections were not properly tested, potentially leaving the offender to feel pain but unable to react as the drugs worked their way through the body.
They also felt the revised protocol was too vague and allows too much discretion by state to deviate from the protocol when it deems necessary as the new manual does not specifically provide criteria or circumstances that would warrant the deviation.
But now, DOC officials say they are confident in the new lethal injection protocol and are ready to resume executions, beginning with death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith, a 75-year-old man convicted of killing his estranged wife and her two children in 1989.
Smith was originally sentenced to die in 2022, but his execution was stayed by Gov. Lee one hour before his sentence was to be carried out among the reports of prison staff’s failure to test the injection drugs for contaminants.
Smith’s execution, now scheduled for May 22, is the first of four slated for this year. The remaining three are:
– Byron Black, August 5: convicted of the murder of a Nashville woman and her two daughters in 1989.
– Donald Middlebrooks, September 24: convicted of the torture and murder of a man in Nashville in 1987.
– Harold Nichols, December 11: sentenced for the rape and murder of a 21-year-old female in Chattanooga in 1988.
Nine Tennessee death row inmates continue to pursue lawsuits against the state over the injection protocols, both old and the new, arguing that the drug used, pentobarbital, could cause “unnecessary pain and suffering” and “high risk of a torturous death,” supposedly corroborated by a report issued by the Biden-era Department of Justice.
Attorneys defending the inmates also believe the DOC has lost its credibility due to a “culture of recklessness and noncompliance,” and have questioned the department’s transparency in following constitutional guidelines forbidding cruel and unusual punishment. They have requested that no executions be scheduled or carried out until all the lawsuits and trials have concluded.
It is unknown at this time if Gov. Lee will once again step in to halt the executions amid the continued legal battles or if he will allow Smith’s and the other three inmate’s sentences to proceed as scheduled.
About the Author: Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
One Response
I’m all for capital punishment, not being stuck with their upkeep but given the suppression of evidence lucifer’s “judges” do, I fear executing possible innocents.