Report: Inhumane Tennessee Authorities Have Repeatedly Violated Their Own Execution Protocols Since 2018

From [HERE] 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 28, 2022, found that the same oversight that occurred in the leadup to Smith’s execution – failure to test the lethal-injection drugs for endotoxins – had also occurred in the preparations for the seven previous executions. 

The investigation report, authored by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, examined all executions in Tennessee since 2018, when the state last revised its execution protocol. During that time, two people were executed by lethal injection; five were executed by electrocution, but the state prepared lethal injection drugs in case they changed their choice of execution method; and one execution was called off after preparations had already begun. The report found that the state never provided a copy of the protocol to the compounding pharmacy that provided the execution drugs. The execution drugs were required to be tested for potency, sterility, and endotoxin contamination. The endotoxin test was only conducted in one of the eight instances. In one case, potency tests were also not performed, and in another, one drug failed potency testing. “The fact of the matter is not one TDOC employee made it their duty to understand the current Protocol’s testing requirements and ensure compliance," the report said. Many of these failures had already been documented in a May 25, 2022 report by The Tennessean. 

"[Tennessee Department of Correction] leadership viewed the lethal injection process through a tunnel-vision, result-oriented lens rather than provide the necessary guidance and counsel to ensure that Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol was thorough, consistent, and followed," the report concludes. It offers several recommendations, including hiring an employee or consultant with a pharmaceutical background to “provide guidance in connection with the lethal injection process,” providing the execution protocol to the drug supplier, and establishing a team to review testing data before each execution. 

Governor Lee, in a statement, identified four steps his administration will take in response to the report: “1. Make staffing changes at the department’s leadership level. 2. Hire and onboard a permanent TDOC commissioner in January 2023. 3. New department leadership will revise the state’s lethal injection protocol, in consultation with the Governor’s office and the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. 4. New department leadership will review all training associated with the revised protocol and make appropriate operational updates.”