Newly Obtained Records Reveal Tennessee Spent $1.2 Million for Lethal Injection Drugs, Despite Failed Execution Attempts

Reporting from The Tennessean has revealed that since January 2023, Tennessee officials have spent nearly $1.2 million on drugs for lethal injection executions, despite failing to carry out two of its last three scheduled executions in 2026. Records obtained by the outlet indicate the Tennessee Department of Correction has made two payments since January 2023 related to lethal injection drugs: one payment for $525,000, and the other for $650,000. The records do not offer any information about where the lethal injection drugs came from, how much pentobarbital was actually obtained, the price per dose, or the expiration date of these drugs.

This total far exceeds the typical price of pentobarbital. University of South Carolina pharmacy professor, Michaela Almgren, who submitted a report in death penalty litigation, said a 50-milliliter vial of manufactured pentobarbital at Tennessee’s required concentration typically costs between $2,100 and $2,800. The state’s lethal injection protocol calls for two or four syringes per execution attempt. The records do not say whether the state’s payments also covered costs like transportation.

In 2025, following a multi-year pause on executions, Tennessee resumed executions with a new, one-drug pentobarbital protocol. Since then, the state has executed four people and unsuccessfully attempted to execute two others: Tony Carruthers in May 2026 and Christa Pike in September 2026. In May, after an hour of attempting to establish an IV-line, Governor Bill Lee called off Mr. Carruthers’ execution and granted a one-year reprieve. According to counsel for Mr. Carruthers, execution team members punctured him more than a dozen times while repeatedly attempting to establish an IV line before the execution was stopped and Maria DeLiberato, one of Mr. Carruthers’ attorneys who was in the execution chamber, said she saw him “wincing and groaning” while officials attempted to find a vein, calling it “horrible” to watch.

Ms. Pike survived the injection of two doses of pentobarbital during the state’s failed attempt to execute her at the end of September. Witnesses to Ms. Pike’s attempted execution noted that after receiving lethal doses of pentobarbital, she complained of arm pain, winced, and continued breathing, occasionally lifting parts of her body off the gurney. When execution staff confirmed she had not died, she was taken to a local hospital where she remained for several days. She was released back to prison to receive continuing care on October 10.

Tennessee is not the only state known to have spent large sums on lethal injection drugs, and the pattern across states is consistent: the price for drugs used in executions is well above market value, and the public has limited knowledge surrounding these purchases.

Indiana paid $900,000 for the drugs used to execute Joseph Corcoran in December 2024, and according to reporting by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Governor Mike Braun later said the state spent $1.175 million total on lethal injection drugs into 2025. $600,000 worth of these drugs expired before they could be used in executions. The cost ran between $275,000 and $300,000 per dose, and the drug has a 90-day shelf life. The state paid an additional $100,000 for execution drugs used in October 2025, placing the state’s total spending over the last few years at nearly $1.3 million.

In Texas, the state’s Department of Criminal Justice spent more than $775,000 to acquire pentobarbital for executions between September 2024 and February 2025. Records show that in September 2024, the state obtained 20 one-gram vials of pentobarbital and an additional eight 2.5‑gram vials in February 2025.

Idaho attempted to execute Thomas Creech in February 2024 but failed to do so after an hour of repeated attempts to establish an IV-line. The state set another execution date for November 2024; however, a federal district court issued a stay of execution to allow for additional time to litigate Mr. Creech’s claims. In the state’s attempted efforts to execute Mr. Creech, the state spent $50,000 on lethal injection drugs in October 2023, an additional $100,000 in June 2024, and another $50,000 in October 2024.

Following Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Ms. Pike, Gov. Lee halted executions to allow for an independent investigation into whether the state followed its protocol. This is the second protocol review that Gov. Lee has authorized. The first one found that between 2018 and 2022, there were widespread problems with Tennessee officials following the protocol, including a failure to properly test the drugs. The attorney general’s office told The Tennessean it spent more than $250,000 on the first investigation.