Image Credit: Canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –
With Tennessee set to execute its third prisoner by lethal injection since the state resumed the sentencing method, the inmate’s attorneys are fighting for information about the state’s lethal drug supply, and a Knox County judge will soon decide if they can have it.
Harold Wayne Nichols, who was convicted of the rape and violent murder of a 20-year-old Chattanooga State student in 1990, is scheduled to be executed Dec.11, which will be the third lethal injection of the year and the last scheduled for 2025.
Lethal injections resumed earlier this year after Gov. Bill Lee ordered a stay of execution for all death row prisoners to revamp state protocols after lawsuits arose over concerns about inmates being able to feel pain during their executions.
The execution of Byron Black on August 5 of this year caused an uproar from anti-death penalty advocates after Lee did not intervene in his execution and reports circulated that he “cried out in pain” after receiving his injection. His attorney claimed he was “tortured” by the single-drug injection of pentobarbital the state now uses in lieu of a three-drug cocktail.
Now, in the latest legal battle surrounding the state’s death penalty procedures, Nichols’ defense team is challenging a state law which protects the identities of anyone involved in carrying out a death sentence- including prison staff, contractors, and drug suppliers- arguing the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) violated state laws in withholding information.
The Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, the nonprofit representing Nichols, has submitted several records requests to the Tennessee Department of Corrections over the past year, seeking information about items like expiration dates for the drugs and results from recent quality testing.
While the attorneys acknowledged some requests were broad and involved records that would need personal information, like names, redacted, they maintain others seemed to have nothing to do with the drug sellers and therefore should have been turned over by TDOC.
But the department refused to turn over several records, citing an exemption to the state’s open record laws. In response, Nichols’ team sued TDOC in Knox County Court, arguing that the TDOC’s “reliance on the execution secrecy statute… is overly broad, selective, irregular, and arbitrary.”
The state maintains their use of the exemption to the open records law is valid because the drugs are hard to procure and releasing information could put their ability to maintain their supply in jeopardy.
Drug manufacturers like Pfizer won’t sell their products for use in execution, so state prison systems must either go to compounding pharmacies- small labs that make unregulated copies of well-known drugs- or they can purchase what critics call “gray market” drugs which are made in commercial facilities, meaning they are not black-market drugs, but are not subject to more rigorous factory-to-patient tracking systems overseen by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
State officials argue that exposure of their suppliers’ information would cause them to potentially pull out of deals with the prison system and prevent it from carrying out lethal injection sentences.
To address the legal concerns on both ends, Knox County Chancery Court Chancellor John Weaver ordered TDOC to turn the documents over to him by Dec. 3 for personal review before he determines whether the state properly applied the secrecy laws.
Nichols’ team also filed a petition to delay his execution over “serious concerns about Tennessee’s new execution protocol”, but it was dismissed on Nov. 26, with the judge ruling the statute of limitations barred Nichols from challenging his method of execution.
The attorneys filed an appeal on Dec. 1 and are hoping to quickly get a hearing before a judge, but unless another court stays his execution or Gov. Lee commutes his death sentence, TDOC will fulfill Nichols’ death sentence on Dec. 11 at Riverbed Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
About the Author: Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
