Tennessee governor cancels execution of Oscar Smith, citing oversight in plan

Tennessee’s governor on Thursday canceled what should have been the state’s first execution since the pandemic began, granting a temporary pardon to the oldest inmate on death row for a so-called “superintendent” crime. in preparation for the lethal injection.

Republican Governor Bill Lee failed to explain exactly what forced the eleventh surprise stop in Plan to execute 72-year-old Oscar Smith. But Amy Harwell, an attorney for the federal public defender’s office representing Smith, said her office was notified that the matter was settled for “mishandling” of the drug – though no further details were available. specific details are provided to her office.

The inmate was scheduled to be injected with three drugs a short time later at a maximum security prison in Nashville.

“Due to the preparatory surveillance for lethal injection, the scheduled execution of Oscar Smith will not proceed this evening. I will grant temporary authorization while we work out the Tennessee Department of Corrections protocol,” Lee said in a statement promising more details when available.

Kelley Henry, another attorney for the federal public defender’s office, has called for an independent investigation, saying the execution should not be until questions are answered.

Henry said the governor did “the right thing” by stopping the execution, which was “certainly torture for Mr. Smith.”

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Smith was convicted of the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and her two teenage sons. Just before the governor intervened, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute offer by Smith’s attorneys to stay.

His regret in effect until the beginning of June.

Dorinda Carter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said the state’s Supreme Court would need to reschedule the execution. She said Smith would be removed from the death watch and returned to his death row cell.

State officials declined to provide further information.

Just before learning of his pardon, Smith received communion from his spiritual advisor, who would be allowed into the execution room.

Hours earlier, Smith had been served what was believed to be his last meal, which included a pair of bacon burgers and apple pie.

Tennessee has scheduled five executions this year, including Smith’s. It has been and is seeking to continue its pre-pandemic rapid pace of sending prisoners to their deaths. According to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which will begin on Thursday, five pending death warrants have tied Tennessee to Texas nationally this year.

Texas, however, executes its oldest death row prisoner on Thursday night. Carl Wayne Buntion, 78, was executed for the June 1990 fatal shooting of Houston police officer James Irby during a traffic stop.

Smith had originally scheduled an execution for June 2020, one of several days delayed because of the pandemic.

Smith was found guilty of stabbing and fatally shooting Judith Smith and her sons Jason and Chad Burnett, ages 13 and 16, at their home in Nashville on October 1, 1989.

Smith has insisted that he is innocent. In a clemency petition, denied by Lee on Tuesday, Smith’s legal team claimed there were problems with the jury during his 1990 trial. His lawyer before that denied his request to reopen after a new type of DNA analysis found the DNA of an unknown person on one of the murder weapons.

Tennessee has not carried out any executions since February 2020, when Nicholas Sutton died in the electric chair for killing a fellow inmate in an east Tennessee prison. Of the seven prisoners Tennessee has executed since 2018 – when Tennessee ended a moratorium on executions that had lasted since 2009 – only two have died by lethal injection.

Smith had previously refused to choose between chair and lethal injection, so lethal injection became the default method.

Tennessee uses a series of three drugs to bring prisoners to their deaths: midazolam, a tranquilizer to render prisoners unconscious; vecuronium bromide, to paralyze prisoners; and potassium chloride, for cardiac arrest.

Officials said midazolam left inmates unconscious and unable to feel pain. However, expert witnesses for prisoners said that the drug would cause drowning, suffocation and chemical burning while prisoners were unable to move or scream. The assessment led more inmates to opt for the electric chair over the lethal injection.

Tennessee’s moves to resume lethal injections come amid a shortage of execution drugs in other states. First, South Carolina has cited struggles to obtain lethal injections in recent years – a problem in many states because pharmacies and manufacturers have refused to supply their drugs to pharmacies. execution – as it went ahead with plans for a rare US execution. That implementation has also been delayed.

Lawmakers in South Carolina failed to pass the kind of law to keep the law enforcement drug suppliers confidential that Tennessee does.

In Oklahoma last October, an inmate executed by injection of the same three deadly drugs suffered convulsions and vomiting after injecting midazolam. Oklahoma has administered three lethal injections since then, with no similar reactions reported.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here