Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (pic­tured) lift­ed the mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions that he imposed in February after accept­ing revised death penal­ty pro­to­cols sub­mit­ted by the Tennessee Department of Corrections just days before the next exe­cu­tion. Though the new pro­ce­dures include more detailed guide­lines for car­ry­ing out lethal injec­tions, the state will con­tin­ue to use a con­tro­ver­sial three-drug ​“cock­tail” and exclude doc­tors from par­tic­i­pat­ing, meau­res that some say risk severe and unnec­es­sary pain. Legal chal­lenges to the lethal injec­tion process con­tin­ue.

In February 2007, Gov. Bredesen expressed con­cerns about the man­ner in which exe­cu­tions were car­ried out in the state and ordered a halt to exe­cu­tions until May 2. He direct­ed the Tennessee Department of Corrections to con­duct a ​“com­pre­hen­sive review of the man­ner in which death sen­tences are admin­is­tered… and pro­vide [the gov­er­nor] new pro­to­cols and relat­ed writ­ten pro­ce­dures in admin­is­ter­ing death sen­tences in Tennessee.” In April, the American Bar Association issued a review of Tennessee’s death penal­ty and urged Bredesen to extend the state’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions ​“to per­mit a thor­ough review of every aspect of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment admin­is­tra­tion in the state.” The ABA not­ed that the review should include an exam­i­na­tion of ​“exces­sive case­loads and inad­e­quate stan­dards for defense coun­sel” and ​“racial dis­par­i­ties and inad­e­quate review of death row inmates’ claims of actu­al inno­cence.”

Tennessee has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of Philip Workman for May 9.

(Jurist Legal News & Research, May 1, 2007). Read the revised Tennessee Death Penalty Protocols. Read the Executive Summary of the ABA’s study. See also, Lethal Injection and Executions.

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