Tennessee Sets Three Execution Dates for Most-in-Nation 5 Pending Executions in 2022

The Tennessee Supreme Court has issued death war­rants set­ting exe­cu­tion dates for three pris­on­ers, bring­ing to five — the nation’s‑high — the num­ber of exe­cu­tions pend­ing in the state in 2022. On February 22, 2022, the court set exe­cu­tion dates of August 18 for Byron Black, October 6 for Gary Sutton, and December 8 for Donald Middlebrooks. The court had pre­vi­ous­ly set exe­cu­tion dates of April 21 for Oscar Smith and June 9 for Harold Nichols.

Black has pre­sent­ed evi­dence that he is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty but had been pre­vent­ed from lit­i­gat­ing that issue because of a pro­ce­dur­al defect in Tennessee’s post-con­vic­tion process. The state enact­ed a new law ear­li­er cre­at­ing a legal mech­a­nism to review intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims, and Black has a peti­tion pend­ing under that law. Middlebrooks’ lawyers argue that he is severe­ly men­tal­ly ill and incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed. The Tennessee Supreme Court remand­ed his case to the Davidson County (Nashville) tri­al court for a deter­mi­na­tion of his com­pe­ten­cy. ​“To ensure the deter­mi­na­tion of Mr. Middlebrooks’ com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed occurs in close prox­im­i­ty to his sched­uled exe­cu­tion date,” the court direct­ed Middlebrooks’ coun­sel to ​“file his peti­tion alleg­ing incom­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed in the tri­al court no soon­er than October 3, 2022, and no lat­er than October 5, 2022.”

As of March 4, eleven exe­cu­tion dates were pend­ing across the United States in 2022: five in Tennessee, four in Texas, and one each in Missouri and Ohio (click to enlarge graph­ic). Ten pre­vi­ous Ohio death war­rants that sched­uled exe­cu­tions for 2022 have been resched­uled or halt­ed by stays of exe­cu­tion, reprieves, or the death of the pris­on­er and the remain­ing exe­cu­tion date in Ohio is not expect­ed to go forward.