Tennessee Death Row Inmates File Suit to Stop New Lethal Injection Protocols

A group of nine men on Tennessee’s death row filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court on Friday, challenging the use of pentobarbital in the state’s lethal injection protocol, citing the “risk of tortuous death.”

The Tennessee Department of Correction announced in December that it adopted a new lethal injection protocol using the barbiturate pentobarbital, and after a five-year reprieve from executions after errors were revealed in the previous protocol, on March 3 the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered the execution of four death row inmates beginning in May. However, according to the suit, multiple studies show that the use of pentobarbital in executions is a breach of the inmates’ constitutional rights prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

“The evidence keeps piling up to show that pentobarbital poisoning is excruciatingly painful,” Amy Harwell, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a press release. “Tennessee appears to have picked this method only because they were able to get their hands on pentobarbital, not because its use for executions complies with the Constitution or state law.”

Two of the men who are suing are among the four currently scheduled for execution. Oscar Smith, the first inmate set to be executed on May 22, was less than an hour away from execution in April 2022 when Gov. Bill Lee halted the proceeding due to the discovery of errors in the protocol at that time. The complaint cites Tennessee’s history of mistakes in the administration of lethal injections as another reason to stop the use of pentobarbital.

“TDOC has developed an internal culture of recklessness and noncompliance, such that no person could reasonably expect TDOC to comply with even the bare-bones protections against maladministration that it is willing to adopt,” reads the complaint. “This culture of noncompliance, when combined with the risk-prone nature of pentobarbital poisoning as a method of execution, creates a high risk that a person receiving a lethal injection administered by TDOC will be tortured to death.”

According to the suit, one study found that of 58 individuals killed with pentobarbital, 48 were found to have fluid in their lungs, which can create “a sense of suffocating or drowning that has been likened by experts to the sensation intentionally induced by the practice of waterboarding — an unambiguous form of outright torture.

Additionally, the complaint cites concerns from experts who say that even a correctly administered dose of pentobarbital may not reach a person’s nervous system before the “torturous” effects kick in, causing a person to feel all of the physical effects of the drug.

The complaint also challenges a “12-hour blackout” policy adopted by TDOC, which “directs the warden to ‘[e]nsure non-contact visits and phone calls — excluding visits and calls from the inmate’s attorney of record — are concluded’” by 12 hours before the execution. This bars the inmates from communicating with friends, family or spiritual advisors for the final 12 hours of their lives.

“Because the 12-hour blackout concludes with the execution of the restricted person, the 12-Hour Blackout Policy is a restriction on the individual’s ability to communicate his thoughts and feelings as he faces death,” reads the complaint.

The complaint asks the court to order the use of pentobarbital as unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment and TDOC’s blackout rule as unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Source: nashvillebanner.com, Connor Daryani, March 14, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Tennessee executes Harold Wayne Nichols

Thirty-seven years after confessing to a series of rapes and the murder of Karen Pulley, Nichols expressed remorse in final words Strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution Thursday morning, Harold Wayne Nichols made a final statement. “To the people I’ve harmed, I’m sorry,” he said, according to prison officials and media witnesses. “To my family, know that I love you. I know where I’m going to. I’m ready to go home.”

USA | Should Medical Research Regulations and Informed Consent Principles Apply to States’ Use of Experimental Execution Methods?

New drugs and medical treatments undergo rigorous testing to ensure they are safe and effective for public use. Under federal and state regulations, this testing typically involves clinical trials with human subjects, who face significant health and safety risks as the first people exposed to experimental treatments. That is why the law requires them to be fully informed of the potential effects and give their voluntary consent to participate in trials. Yet these regulations have not been followed when states seek to use novel and untested execution methods — subjecting prisoners to potentially torturous and unconstitutionally painful deaths. Some experts and advocates argue that states must be bound by the ethical and human rights principles of biomedical research before using these methods on prisoners.

Georgia parole board suspends scheduled execution of Cobb County death row prisoner

The execution of a Georgia man scheduled for Wednesday has been suspended as the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considers a clemency application. Stacey Humphreys, 52, would have been the state's first execution in 2025. As of December 16, 2025, Georgia has carried out zero executions in 2025. The state last executed an inmate in January 2020, followed by a pause due to COVID-19. Executions resumed in 2024, but none have occurred this year until now. Humphreys had been sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

China | Former Chinese senior banker Bai Tianhui executed for taking US$155 million in bribes

Bai is the second senior figure from Huarong to be put to death for corruption following the execution of Lai Xiaomin in 2021 China has executed a former senior banker who was found guilty of taking more than 1.1 billion yuan (US$155 million) in bribes. Bai Tianhui, the former general manager of the asset management firm China Huarong International Holdings, was executed on Tuesday after the Supreme People’s Court approved the sentence, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Iran | Child Bride Saved from the Gallows After Blood Money Raised Through Donations, Charities

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 9, 2025: Goli Kouhkan, a 25-year-old undocumented Baluch child bride who was scheduled to be executed within weeks, has been saved from the gallows after the diya (blood money) was raised in time. According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency , the plaintiffs in the case of Goli Kouhkan, have agreed to forgo their right to execution as retribution. In a video, the victim’s parents are seen signing the relevant documents. Goli’s lawyer, Parand Gharahdaghi, confirmed in a social media post that the original 10 billion (approx. 100,000 euros) toman diya was reduced to 8 billion tomans (approx. 80,000 euros) and had been raised through donations and charities.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Who Gets Hanged in Singapore?

Singapore’s death penalty has been in the news again. Enshrined in law in 1975, a decade after the island split from Malaysia and became an independent state, the penalty can see people sentenced to hang for drug trafficking, murder or firearms offenses, among other crimes. Executions have often involved trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act, with offenses measured in grams. Those executed have included people from low-income backgrounds and foreign nationals who are sometimes not fluent in English, according to human rights advocates such as Amnesty International and the International Drug Policy Consortium.

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog