Report shines new light on execution secrecy in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When multiple pharmaceutical companies objected to Tennessee using their drugs to kill death row inmates several years back, the scramble to find lethal injection chemicals needed to carry out state-sanctioned executions grew frantic. The result: The state put a single employee with no medical background in charge of procuring the drugs, and the state’s own flawed lethal injection rules and communication lapses meant one of the required tests for the drugs wasn’t conducted during any of seven executions since 2018 — two by lethal injection, five by electric chair. Bill Lee paused all executions after confirming the state failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested before the scheduled execution of Oscar Smith. — A separate text exchange between the state’s lethal drug procurer and the owner of the supply pharmacy showed them chatting about whiskey and beer as they conferred on key details about testing execution drugs. — An unidentified state official, sending a text message hours before the Smith execution was paused, warned: “We are preserving everything so don’t throw anything away or alter any stuff.” The report showed that the state ultimately opted not to buy pentobarbital from a veterinarian 2017, but did consider importing the barbiturate internationally before scuttling that over logistical concerns.