Entries tagged with “Oscar Smith”

Apr 16, 2025

Tennessee Death Row Prisoners Ask Governor Lee to Halt Scheduled Executions While Courts Assess Constitutionality of New Lethal Injection Protocol

On April 10, 2025, attor­neys for Tennessee death row pris­on­ers Oscar Smith and Byron Black called on Governor Bill Lee to issue a tem­po­rary reprieve in their cas­es. In their let­ter, the attor­neys ask Gov. Lee​“to pause all exe­cu­tions in Tennessee until March 1, 2026,” to per­mit a pend­ing case chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s new pen­to­bar­bi­tal lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure to be decid­ed. In late December 2024, the Tennessee Department of Corrections…

Mar 25, 2025

Records Show Tennessee Officials Have Spent Nearly $600,000 of Taxpayer Funds for Lethal Injection Drugs Since 2017

According to records request­ed by *The Tennessean*, between 2017 and 2025 the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) spent near­ly $600,000 of tax­pay­er funds obtain­ing drugs for lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Specific infor­ma­tion about the drugs’ sources and ori­gins remains unknown because of the state’s secre­cy pro­vi­sions. During this time peri­od sev­en exe­cu­tions were car­ried out: five by elec­tro­cu­tion, two by lethal injec­tion. The TDOC ini­tial­ly refused to respond…

Methods of Execution

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Mar 18, 2025

Nine Tennessee Death Row Prisoners Challenge State’s One-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol, Citing ​“High Risk of Torturous Death”

On March 14, 2025, a group of nine death row pris­on­ers in Tennessee filed a law­suit chal­leng­ing the state’s sole use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal in its revised lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, argu­ing it cre­ates a​“high risk of a tor­tur­ous death.” In December 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that instead of the pre­vi­ous three-drug pro­to­col, the state would shift to rely on just one drug:…

Executions

Executions Overview

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Botched Executions

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Jan 17, 2023

Tennessee Gov. Says No Death Warrants Until Execution Protocol Problems Fixed

Tennessee will not resume exe­cu­tions until it fix­es sys­temic prob­lems with the admin­is­tra­tion of its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, Governor Bill Lee has announced.​“It’s a very impor­tant issue that has to be done cor­rect­ly,” Lee told reporters on January 5, 2023.​“And we will take the time to fix the pro­to­col and to make cer­tain that we don’t move for­ward until everything’s…

Executions

Jan 04, 2023

Report: Tennessee Repeatedly Violated Execution Protocol Since 2018

An inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Tennessee​’s exe­cu­tion prac­tices has found that the state repeat­ed­ly failed to fol­low its own pro­to­cols in per­form­ing sev­en exe­cu­tions and prepar­ing for an eighth between 2018 and 2022. Governor Bill Lee (pic­tured) com­mis­sioned the inves­ti­ga­tion in May 2022, short­ly after he called off the exe­cu­tion of Oscar Smith “[d]ue to an over­sight in prepa­ra­tion for lethal injec­tion.” The report, which…

Executions

Executions Overview

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Jun 23, 2022

Tennessee Executions Could Be on Hold for Years Following Independent Investigation, Anticipated Court Challenges

Tennessee exe­cu­tions could be on hold for years, as the state con­ducts an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into wide­spread non-com­­pli­ance with its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and lit­i­gates the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of revi­sions expect­ed to be made to its exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures. The antic­i­pat­ed delay, first report­ed by the Associated Press June 13, 2022, is a like­ly by-prod­uct of a deci­sion by Governor Bill Lee to can­cel all executions…

Executions

May 17, 2022

Fallout From Aborted Tennessee Execution: Prosecutors Misrepresented Facts in Federal Lawsuit, 2 Members of Execution Team Knew Drugs Had Not Been Tested

The fall­out fol­low­ing Tennessee​’s abort­ed attempt to exe­cute Oscar Smith on April 21, 2022 con­tin­ues to grow, as state pros­e­cu­tors dis­closed that their plead­ings had mis­rep­re­sent­ed facts in a fed­er­al lethal injec­tion law­suit and pub­lic records revealed that at least two mem­bers of the exe­cu­tion team knew the day before Smith was to be exe­cut­ed that the drugs pur­chased to put Smith to death had not been…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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May 03, 2022

Tennessee Governor Halts Executions Scheduled for 2022 to Conduct Review of Execution Protocol ​‘Oversight’

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (pic­tured) has paused all exe­cu­tions sched­uled for 2022 and called for an​“inde­pen­dent review” of the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col to address a​“tech­ni­cal over­sight” that led him to halt Oscar Franklin Smith​’s exe­cu­tion less than a half-hour before it was sched­uled to be car­ried out on April…

Executions

Time on Death Row

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Apr 22, 2022

One Execution, One Reprieve: Scheduled Executions of Oldest Death-Row Prisoners in Texas and Tennessee Illustrate Aging of Death Row

In a coin­ci­dence that brought atten­tion to the aging of death row across the United States, the old­est death-row pris­on­ers in Tennessee and Texas faced exe­cu­tion in their respec­tive states on April 21, 2022. After the U.S. Supreme Court denied stays of exe­cu­tion for both pris­on­ers, their cas­es took different…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Mar 05, 2022

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…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Apr 27, 2020

Texas Court Issues Nation’s Seventh Coronavirus Stay of Execution

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stayed the May 6, 2020 exe­cu­tion of Edward Busby (pic­tured) for six­ty days. Busby’s was the nation’s sev­enth exe­cu­tion post­poned in the United States because of the coro­n­avirus and the…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Apr 17, 2020

Tennessee Supreme Court Stays Prisoner’s Execution Because of Investigative Time Lost to Pandemic

The Tennessee Supreme Court has stayed the June 4, 2020 exe­cu­tion of death-row pris­on­er Oscar Franklin Smith (pic­tured) and resched­uled his exe­cu­tion for February 4, 2021. The order, issued on April 17, 2020, grant­ed a stay request filed by Smith’s lawyers, who had sought a post­pone­ment on the grounds that, because of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, they had lost​“crit­i­cal time” for investigation…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Feb 18, 2020

As Execution Dates Approach, Tennessee Prisoners Challenge Execution Method

Tennessee has sched­uled three upcom­ing exe­cu­tions, despite ongo­ing lit­i­ga­tion sur­round­ing the use of its lethal injec­tion pro­to­col and prob­lems with its lethal-injec­­tion drugs that have led five pris­on­ers to opt for death by elec­tro­cu­tion. Attorneys for five oth­er death-row pris­on­ers, includ­ing Oscar Smith, who has an exe­cu­tion date of June 4, 2020, have filed a fed­er­al suit pre­sent­ing new evi­dence chal­leng­ing the state’s…