Tennessee's new death penalty drug sparks concerns ahead of first scheduled execution in years
Gov. Bill Lee paused all executions in April 2022 after discovering issues with the state's death penalty protocol and the drugs it used in executions. He ordered the Tennessee Department of Correction to create a new death penalty protocol, which was completed in December 2024.
However, critics like Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have argued the new protocol is even worse than before.
RELATED | Death row inmates sue state over new lethal injection protocol
'Tennessee struggled with the drugs that were previously being used and has now switched to one that is also problematic,' Rector said.
Tennessee chose pentobarbital, a single drug commonly used to treat insomnia in humans, as its new lethal injection drug. In higher doses, it can be fatal. Several states, and formerly the federal government, have used it to execute inmates since around 2010.
However, the drug is controversial. This past January, the U.S. Department of Justice ditched the drug after a years-long investigation rose concerns pentobarbital could cause 'unnecessary pain and suffering.'
According to Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, some people put to death with pentobarbital experienced pulmonary edema, which causes the sensation of drowning and pain.
SEE ALSO | Tennessee's new death penalty protocol: What's different
'The pentobarbital did not adequately anesthetize these individuals, so they were experiencing this sensation of being water boarded, and that, according to the DOJ, is a violation of the 8th Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment,' Rector said.
Several Tennessee death row inmates are now suing the state over its new death penalty protocol. In the lawsuit, they argued pentobarbital has been shown to 'pose a high risk of a torturous death.'
'It's riskier now, and this risk is not simply theoretical, folks,' Kelley J. Henry, a supervisory assistant federal public defender, said. 'They make it seem as if a lethal injection is a medical procedure. It's not. It's poison.'
In addition, some expressed concerns if something were to go wrong during an execution under the new protocol, the public likely wouldn't find out because the new protocol is more secretive than the last.
'I think all citizens, regardless of your opinions of the death penalty, should have deep concern about the government shielding itself from accountability from the public this way,' Rector said.
Death row inmate Oscar Smith will be the first prisoner executed under the state's new protocol on Thursday, May 22. Smith brutally murdered his estranged wife, Judy Robird Smith, and her sons Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett in Nashville on Oct. 1, 1989.
Inmates whose crimes were committed before Jan. 1, 1999, can choose between the lethal injection and the electric chair under Tennessee law.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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His implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is a small, battery-powered electronic device that is surgically implanted in the chest. It served as a pacemaker and an emergency defibrillator. Black's attorneys said in order to be sure it was off, a doctor would have to place a programming device over the implant site, sending it a deactivation command, with no surgery required. In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black's attorneys that officials must have his device deactivated to avert the risk that it could cause unnecessary pain and prolong the execution. But the state Supreme Court intervened July 31 to overturn that decision, saying the other judge lacked the authority to order the change. The state had disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black's defibrillator to shock him. Even if shocks were triggered, Black wouldn't feel them, the state said. Black's attorneys had countered that even if the lethal drug being used, pentobarbital, renders someone unresponsive, they aren't necessarily unaware or unable to feel pain. Kelley Henry, Black's attorney, said previously that the execution could become a "grotesque spectacle." According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, seven media members had been selected witnesses to the execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. The legal case also spurred a reminder that most medical professionals consider participation in executions a violation of health care ethics. Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Prosecutors said Black was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting and wounding Clay's estranged husband. 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Tennessee readies for execution of man with working implanted defibrillator
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee is gearing up for an execution on Tuesday that experts say would likely mark the first time a man has been put to death with a working defibrillator in his chest. Gov. Bill Lee declined Monday to grant a reprieve, clearing the way for Byron Black's execution after a legal battle and ongoing uncertainty about whether the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator will shock his heart when the lethal drug takes effect. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said it's unaware of any other cases in which a person on death row made similar claims to Black's about defibrillators or pacemakers. Black's attorneys said they haven't found a comparable case, either. Lee said the courts have "universally determined that it is lawful to carry out the jury's sentence of execution given to Mr. Black for the heinous murders of Angela Clay and her daughters Lakeisha, age 6, and Latoya, age 9." The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Black's appeals. The execution would be Tennessee's second since May, after a pause for five years, first because of COVID-19 and then because of missteps by state corrections officials. Twenty-seven men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and nine other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. The number of executions this year exceeds the 25 carried out last year and in 2018. It is the highest total since 2015, when 28 people were put to death. Black's condition Black, 69, is in a wheelchair, and he has dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said. The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator he has is a small, battery-powered electronic device that is surgically implanted in the chest. It serves as a pacemaker and an emergency defibrillator. Black's attorneys say in order to be sure it's off, a doctor must place a programming device over the implant site, sending it a deactivation command, with no surgery required. In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black's attorneys that officials must have his device deactivated to avert the risk that it could cause unnecessary pain and prolong the execution. But the state Supreme Court intervened July 31 to overturn that decision, saying the other judge lacked the authority to order the change. The state has disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black's defibrillator to shock him. Even if shocks were triggered, Black wouldn't feel them, the state said. Black's attorneys have countered that even if the lethal drug being used, pentobarbital, renders someone unresponsive, they aren't necessarily unaware or unable to feel pain. Kelley Henry, Black's attorney, said the execution could become a 'grotesque spectacle.' The legal case also spurred a reminder that most medical professionals consider participation in executions a violation of health care ethics. Black's case Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters. Prosecutors said he was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting Clay's estranged husband. Linette Bell, whose sister and two nieces were killed, recently told WKRN-TV: 'He didn't have mercy on them, so why should we have mercy on him?' Intellectual disability claim In recent years, Black's legal team has unsuccessfully tried to get a new hearing over whether he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court precedent. His attorneys have said that if they had delayed a prior attempt to seek his intellectual disability claim, he would have been spared under a 2021 state law. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk contended in 2022 that Black is intellectually disabled and deserved a hearing under that 2021 law, but the judge denied it. That is because the 2021 law denies a hearing to people on death row who have already filed a similar request and a court has ruled on it 'on the merits." In Funk's attempt, he focused on input from an expert for the state in 2004 who determined back then that Black didn't meet the criteria for what was then called "mental retardation.' But she concluded that Black met the new law's criteria for a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Black also sought a determination by the courts that he is incompetent to be executed.
