Tennessee execution pause through 2022 could last longer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After Tennessee Gov. Many of the problems surfaced as part of challenges of Tennessee’s execution process by two death row inmates in federal court. Those cases are on hold until the investigation ordered by Lee concludes — but in the meantime, the state attorney general’s office acknowledged in a May 6 court filing that there may be “factual inaccuracies or misstatements” in its previous filings and that corrections will be made “once the truth has been ascertained.” Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said the records show problems have existed at “virtually every step of the protocol,” and he attributed the issues to “a combination of hubris and incompetence.” “The large number of problems and depths of problems Tennessee had with complying with its protocol raise significant questions about the state’s competency to carry out the death penalty,” Dunham said. Lawyers for the two current death row inmates say in federal court filings that the three drugs used in Donnie Johnson’s lethal injection on May 16, 2019 were expired — midazolam, expired by two weeks, the other two, prepared almost two hours in advance, when protocol requires using them within one hour. Other shortcomings include storing the chemicals at incorrect temperatures, holding on to expired doses, and providing inadequate training that entailed being read the protocol and practicing the procedure at sessions the execution team blithely called “band practice.” “The logs documenting these practice sessions list fictitious prisoner names including ‘Wild Bill,’ ‘Con Demned,’ ‘Annie Oakley,’ ‘Doc Holliday,’ ‘Tom Thumb,’ ‘John Henry,’ and ‘Billy the Kid,’” a court filing states.