Tennessee to Resume Executions with Single-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol

On December 27, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that instead of the pre­vi­ous three-drug cock­tail, lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions will use a sin­gle-drug bar­bi­t­u­ate, pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Ohio was the first state to use pen­to­bar­bi­tal, in the March 2011 exe­cu­tion of Johnnie Roy Baston. State offi­cials now use sin­gle drug pro­to­cols in 14 states, includ­ing Tennessee, as well as in fed­er­al exe­cu­tions. The change in Tennessee’s pro­to­col fol­lowed an inde­pen­dent review, order by Governor Bill Lee in 2022 fol­low­ing ​“an over­sight in prepa­ra­tion[s] for lethal injection.” 

According to Nashville-based fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er Kelley Henry, the U.S. Department of Justice is cur­rent­ly review­ing the appro­pri­ate­ness of using pen­to­bar­bi­tal in exe­cu­tions. ​“We know from the sci­en­tif­ic data that sin­gle drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal results in pul­monary ede­ma which has been likened to water­board­ing,” she notes. During the inde­pen­dent review of Tennessee’s pro­to­col, her office agreed to pause their own inves­ti­ga­tion into the state’s ​“mul­ti­ple impro­pri­eties.” Per the agree­ment, her office now has 90 days to review the new pro­to­col and file an amend­ed com­plaint in fed­er­al court. ​“No new exe­cu­tion dates should be set until we have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­clude our litigation.” 

The new pro­to­col lifts the pause on exe­cu­tions put in place when the review was ordered in 2022. ​“I am con­fi­dent the lethal injec­tion process can pro­ceed in com­pli­ance with depart­men­tal pol­i­cy and state laws,” said TDOC Commissioner Frank Strada. U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton led the inde­pen­dent review and released his report in December 2022. That report found the state had failed to test lethal-injec­­tion drugs for endo­tox­ins in prepa­ra­tion for mul­ti­ple exe­cu­tions, in vio­la­tion of state pro­to­cols adopt­ed in 2018. 

The new pro­to­col, part of the state’s man­u­al for exe­cu­tions, has not been made pub­lic, despite a pub­lic record act request from the Associated Press. In deny­ing the request, Tennessee prison offi­cials cit­ed a statute that keeps the iden­ti­ties of those car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions con­fi­den­tial. ​“However,” the AP notes, ​“that same statute says the exis­tence of con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion in a record is not a rea­son to deny access to it, not­ing that the con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion should be redact­ed.” A redact­ed ver­sion of the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col has been issued to media in the past. 

Ms. Henry crit­i­cized the TDOC press release announc­ing the pro­to­col change as ​“notable for its lack of detail.” Ms. Henry explained the ​“secre­cy which shrouds the exe­cu­tion pro­to­col in Tennessee is what allowed TDOC to per­form exe­cu­tions in vio­la­tion of their own pro­to­col while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly mis­rep­re­sent­ing their actions to the courts and the public.” 

There are 46 peo­ple on the Tennessee’s death row. Currently, no exe­cu­tion dates have been set by the Tennessee Supreme Court, which sched­ules them at the behest of the state’s attor­ney gen­er­al. Governor Lee has over­seen four exe­cu­tions dur­ing his tenure, the last of which occurred in February 2020 using electrocution.