By Travis Loller and Rebecca Reynolds -
The Associated Press
The governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, ordered this Monday to paralyze executions by death penalty for the rest of the year after detecting that the state has not carried out the necessary tests on the drugs used for lethal injection.
This irregularity already forced him in April to stop an execution an hour before it was carried out.
Lee, of the Republican Party, said then that he was stopping the death sentence of prisoner Oscar Smith for "carelessness" in the preparation of drugs for lethal injection, without giving more details about it.
Tennessee enforcement protocols require drugs used to be tested for potency, asepsis, and endotoxins.
Lee said Monday that the Smith execution case was tested for potency and asepsis, but not for endotoxins.
The prisoner's lawyers last week called for his execution to be halted to investigate problems linked to the lethal injection.
Federal public defender Kelley Henry said Monday that the Republican governor's decision shows "great leadership."
Oscar Smith, in. Tennessee Department of Corrections / AP
"Drug use in the context of lethal injection is fraught with risk," Henry said.
“The failure of the endotoxin test is a violation of the protocol.
The governor did the right thing by stopping executions because of this violation,” he noted.
Lee appointed former federal prosecutor Ed Stanton to review why that test was not done.
He will also review the state's lethal injection manual and discuss staffing considerations for the Tennessee Department of Corrections, he said in a statement.
"I review every death penalty case and I think it's an appropriate punishment for these heinous crimes," Lee said, "but it's an extremely serious matter, and I hope the Bureau of Corrections leaves no doubt that procedures are being followed properly." .
[Why was Melissa Lucio's execution stayed? These are the reasons pointed out by the court of appeals]
The pause will be in force until the end of the year to give time to make this review and take the necessary actions, as explained.
Henry said last week that the night before the execution he requested the results of potency, asepsis and endotoxin tests, but received no response.
Henry suspects that at least two of the three execution drugs were the result of mixtures of various compounds, rather than being manufactured individually, he explained, but Tennessee executions are governed by rules that keep information secret for the most part. which is difficult to know for sure.
Several years ago there were a series of nationwide protests against the death penalty and lethal injection drug suppliers, with many manufacturers refusing to continue selling their drugs for use in executions.
This made it difficult to get the drugs to prison systems.
Tennessee and many other states then also began passing exemptions to open records laws, hiding the identity of drug suppliers and keeping information about executions secret.
"This fight is not over yet": they demand the release of Melissa Lucio while it is decided if she is innocent
April 26, 202201:57
Smith's attorney received documents about the state's last lethal injection execution in 2019 through a public records request.
She believes the drugs in that case did not pass the required tests.
Medications are supposed to be tested to the standards of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP).
Henry said she believes those drugs were tested but to another country's standard, probably because they were sourced abroad.
The governor said he has asked Stanton to review "compliance with testing policies" since the state's lethal injection manual was last updated in 2018.
[Deaths by capital punishment in the US fall in the last 20 years with Texas leading the executions]
While lethal injection was adopted as a more humane alternative to the electric chair, it has been the subject of ongoing problems and lawsuits.
"God gave me the opportunity to have my daughter by my side."
This is how Melissa Lucio's mother reacted
April 26, 202202:15
"Every time people in my office have raised issues, they've had to make adjustments, whether it's the wrong drug, the wrong strength, or the USP [standards]," Henry said at a news conference last week.
He added that all of the issues were initially raised in a lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection procedure.
Tennessee uses three drugs to kill inmates: midazolam, a sedative to render the inmate unconscious;
vecuronium bromide, to paralyze;
and potassium chloride, to stop the heart.
State authorities have said the inmates are unconscious and unable to feel pain.
However, witnesses to executions have said that inmates appeared to be drowning, suffocating and being burned alive, all while unable to move or scream.
[Why lethal injection is controversial in the United States]
Tennessee paused executions in 2009 and resumed executions in 2018. Since then and until the pandemic began, the state has executed seven inmates, five of whom chose to die in the electric chair.
Smith refused to make a decision, so his execution was scheduled by the state's preferred method of execution: lethal injection.
A group of anti-capital punishment protesters pray on the grounds of the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution prior to the scheduled execution of inmate Oscar Smith, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. Mark Humphrey/AP
Smith was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing and shooting his ex-wife, Judith Smith, and their teenage sons, Jason and Chad Burnett, at their Nashville home on Oct. 1, 1989. At 72, he is the oldest inmate in the state death row.
His death sentence is on hold until June 1, after which the state Supreme Court will set a new date.