From [DPIC] 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 to scheduled to be carried out on April 21, 2022.

In a news release issued at 5:43 a.m. on Monday, May 2, 2022, Lee announced that the state would retain former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to conduct a third-party review of Tennessee’s execution process after corrections officials failed to test execution drugs for bacterial endotoxins before Smith’s execution. Lee said that Tennessee would not go forward this year with the five executions that had been scheduled in the state between June and December 2022.

“I review each death penalty case and believe it is an appropriate punishment for heinous crimes,” Lee said in the release. “However, the death penalty is an extremely serious matter, and I expect the Tennessee Department of Correction to leave no question that procedures are correctly followed.” 

“Governor Lee’s decision to pause executions pending an independent review of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol shows great leadership,” said Kelley Henry, Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit at the Nashville Federal Public Defender’s Office. “The use of compounded drugs in the context of lethal injection is fraught with risk. The failure to test for endotoxins is a violation of the protocol. Governor Lee did the right thing by stopping executions because of this breach.”