Tennessee governor will allow state to resume executions
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An example of a lethal injection death chamber in Texas. Photo: Paul Harris/Getty Images
Gov. Bill Lee will allow Tennessee to resume executions this week despite an ongoing lawsuit challenging the state's new lethal injection method.
State of play: Death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith, 75, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday morning. Smith's attorneys had urged Lee to pause executions until the lawsuit was complete.
- Lee announced his decision not to do so on Tuesday, meaning the execution will almost certainly take place as scheduled. Lee also rejected Smith's clemency request.
Zoom out: Smith was sentenced to death for the 1989 murders of his estranged wife, Judy Lynn Smith, and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett. Smith maintains his innocence.
What he's saying: "After deliberate consideration of Oscar Franklin Smith's request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene," Lee said in a statement on Tuesday.
The big picture: Lee put executions on hold for years after an investigation determined prison officials were not following their own rules surrounding lethal injection chemicals.
- The Tennessee Department of Correction rewrote its protocol and changed its lethal injection to a single drug: pentobarbital.
Friction point: Attorneys representing Smith and a group of other death row inmates say there are "serious unresolved questions" about the new method and the state's supply of pentobarbital. Their lawsuit over the matter is scheduled to go to trial in January.
- "Gov. Lee has, in the past, used his power to prevent Tennessee from making irreparable mistakes. We had hoped he would do so again," federal public defender Kelley Henry, who is Smith's attorney, said in a statement.
- "There is no principled reason to allow the State to resume executions before the court has an opportunity to hear all of the evidence about whether TDOC is sourcing its lethal chemicals legally, whether those chemicals are uncontaminated, unexpired, and undiluted, and whether the execution team is capable of carrying out its duties competently and constitutionally."
What's next: Smith is scheduled to be executed 10am Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institute in Nashville.