NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee Department of Corrections says they have now completed a comprehensive review of the lethal injection protocol. Now, there are revisions to the protocol so lethal injections will use one drug over rather than multiple.
Friday the department announced they will use a single drug called Pentobarbital.
The change to the process started in May of 2022 when a death row inmate at Riverbend Prison was less than 90 minutes away from his execution. Governor Lee stepped and announced the Department of Correction failed to properly test its lethal injection chemicals. Now, TDOC says they have completed a review of the protocol and will use the single drug.
According to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center, fourteen states currently use Pentobarbital for executions. Tennessee will join five more who plan to use it.
"That should quote unquote simplify the process, but there's going to be another round of litigation because no TN court has considered that single drug protocol. I would suggest we're probably 6 months or so before we would see any executions while this is working its way through the courts," said Attorney David Raybin.
Raybin helped draft the state's death penalty law. In a statement, TDOC Commissioner Frank Strada said,
"I am confident the lethal injection process can proceed in compliance with departmental policy and state law."
Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry said the TDOC's announcement was "notable for its lack of detail." Henry's office had stayed its investigation into the lethal injection process, and says it now has 90 days to review the new protocol and file an amended complaint in federal court.
That means families of crime victims and death row inmates may have to continue to wait.
"You have families of the condemned people were there's simply no end to this which is a torture in itself. Then the families of the victims see no end to this. So, this is not a healthy thing that has occurred. I wonder why it's taken so long to even resolve this," said Raybin.
According to the TDOC there are 46 people on death row.
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