Tennessee’s highest court is responsible for scheduling judicially enforced capital punishments. A quintet of individuals, guilty of committing grave crimes in the regions of Middle and West Tennessee, may soon face their designated sentences. The state’s leading prosecutor, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, has officially requested execution dates for these five convicts currently residing on death row. It appears to be an indicator that Tennessee is prepared to recommence carrying out capital punishments after a hiatus in the previous year.
In 2022, Tennessee decided to put a halt to all executions due to rising queries related to its triple-drug lethal injection technique. The state’s most senior legal officer, Skrmetti, has made an appeal to the Supreme Court of the state, urging them to assign execution dates for the five criminals: Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, Kevin Burns, Jon Douglas Hall, Kennath Artez Henderson, and William Glenn Rogers. It is noteworthy that none of these men are guilty of committing capital offenses in East Tennessee; their felonies were committed in other parts of Tennessee.
A formal notice was submitted to the court on February 14, affirming that all the convicts have reached the end of their legal appeals. In a significant move in December, Tennessee announced a change in the execution protocol. The state moved away from using a cocktail of three drugs and decided to carry out the execution through a single drug – pentobarbital.
Pentobarbital, a potent barbiturate, which in high doses, can cause respiratory failure leading to death. This shift came after several allegations of inhuman and torturous experiences by inmates subjected to the trio-drug method. The case of Oscar Franklin Smith is notable, the man convicted of murdering three individuals had his execution unanticipatedly suspended in April 2022, despite being prepped and having his final meal.
Concerns were raised over possible contamination of the lethal drugs intended for use in Smith’s execution. Subsequently, an investigation revealed inconsistencies in protocol adherence within the state’s execution procedure. It was found that required tests to assess contamination with endotoxins were not conducted. This glaring oversight catalyzed the state’s decision to switch to a single-drug mode of execution.
A few inmates who committed the respective crimes during a specific time frame have an unusual option in Tennessee. These few have the privilege of electing electrocution as their mode of execution in place of lethal injection. Among these inmates committed for their egregious crimes, are Hines, 64, accused of the murder of a woman in Cheatham County in 1985, and Burns, 55, found guilty of killing an individual in Shelby County in 1992.
Others sentenced to capital punishment include Jon Hall, who was sixty when he was convicted of killing his spouse in Madison County in 1994. Also, William G. Rogers, aged 62, was found guilty of delinquently causing the death of a 9-year-old child in Montgomery County in 1996. Additionally, Kennath Henderson, now 50, was justly sentenced to death for the murder of Deputy Tommy Bishop from Fayette County in 1997.
Currently, execution awaits 45 men and one woman in the state of Tennessee. The most recent execution in the state was carried out in February 2020. The individual who met his fate was Nicky Sutton, who hailed from East Tennessee and confessed to several homicides. Notably, Sutton utilized his unique option and chose death by electrocution.
Proceedings for capital punishments were suspended by Gov. Bill Lee to allow for a thorough review of the complications surrounding the three-drug cocktail method. Prior to this halt, several convicts were slated for execution in the following year. Like Smith, these convicts included Donald Ray Middlebrooks and Gary Wayne Sutton, who consequently had their executions delayed.
Christa Gail Pike, on death row since 1996 for heinous crimes of torture and murder, and Lemaricus Davidson, on death row since 2009, are among the notable Knox County convicts awaiting execution. In a gruesome incident in January 1995, Pike had tortured and brutally killed Colleen Slemmer. The crime occurred on a walkway within the agricultural campus of the University of Tennessee.