Entries tagged with “Oscar Smith”

Executions

Executions Overview

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Botched Executions

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Lethal Injection

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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 in…

Executions

Lethal Injection

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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 was pub­licly released on December…

Executions

Executions Overview

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Lethal Injection

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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 sched­uled in the state for the remainder of…

Executions

Lethal Injection

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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 properly…

Policy Issues

Secrecy

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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 21,…

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 Oscar…

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 sixth in…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Representation

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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 in the…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Lethal Injection

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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 execution…