NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Supreme Court has announced execution dates for four prisoners, one of whom, Oscar Smith, narrowly avoided execution in 2022 when Governor Bill Lee unexpectedly issued a reprieve. This last-minute suspension arose after Smith’s lawyer, Kelley Henry, inquired about the results of mandatory tests on the purity and potency of the lethal injection drugs intended for his execution. It was discovered that one of these essential tests had not been performed.
An independent investigation later revealed that the drugs used for the execution of seven inmates in Tennessee since 2018 had not been comprehensively tested. The state’s Attorney General’s Office also admitted in court that two officials, who were primarily in charge of overseeing the state’s lethal injection drugs, had mistakenly testified under oath that all necessary tests on the chemicals were being conducted as required.
In response, the Tennessee Department of Correction introduced a revised execution protocol in late December, adopting the single drug pentobarbital. This update allowed the state’s Supreme Court to reschedule Smith’s execution. Smith was found guilty of the murder of his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her teenage sons, Jason and Chad Burnett, in their Nashville home on October 1, 1989.
The court also set new execution dates for three other inmates whose executions were put on hold in 2022 due to Governor Lee’s temporary reprieve. These individuals are Donald Middlebrooks, Byron Black, and Harold Nichols. All of them were convicted prior to January 1999, allowing them the choice between lethal injection or electrocution. However, Henry argues that all four executions should be halted due to an ongoing lawsuit in federal court.
This lawsuit challenges the previous lethal injection method employed in Tennessee, which utilized a series of three drugs. When the state declared a review and overhaul of its execution protocols, Henry agreed to pause the legal challenge with the understanding that legal representatives would have 90 days to examine the new procedures and potentially amend the lawsuit. Middlebrooks is among the plaintiffs in this case, with a previous agreement from the state not to resist a stay in his execution.
Henry asserted that this agreement should also extend to the other inmates whose execution dates were recently set, describing the revised execution protocol as “shocking in its lack of transparency and detail.”
In addition to the four inmates with newly scheduled execution dates, Tennessee’s Attorney General has petitioned the court for execution dates for five more inmates: Kevin Burns, Jon Hall, Kennath Henderson, Anthony Hines, and William Rogers.
