Tennessee is scheduled to resume executions this month, and some victims’ rights advocates are arguing there are better ways to spend state money than administering capital punishment.
Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is the latest group to ask Gov. Bill Lee for a reprieve. Several attorneys for death row inmates have done the same. And he would need to make a decision soon. Oscar Franklin Smith is scheduled to be put to death on May 22, which would make him the first to die under Tennessee’s new lethal injection protocol, and the first to be executed by the state since 2020.
Family members of murder victims spoke on behalf of TADP on Thursday before delivering a formal letter requesting the reprieve. They said there were ways they could have been helped in the aftermath of the deaths of their loved ones, and that the state government should invest its resources in support instead of retribution.
Timothy Holton talked about his experience with the death penalty when his cousin Daryl was executed. He was put to death for killing his four children in 1997. Some of the family supported his cousin’s sentence; others didn’t.
“The added trauma and pain that this division caused is still present today — trauma and pain that has broken relationships within my family,” he said. “At a time when we needed each other the most, it was the death penalty that tore us apart.”
He said there was another route that the state could have taken.
“What my family needed was counseling,” he said. “It was trauma-informed care. And a better understanding of the untreated mental illness that led to this tragedy.”
Tim Williams founded the Memphis chapter of the national organization Parents of Murdered Children. He attended the event with his daughter. Her mother was killed in 1989.
Williams shared some data, noting that about half of Tennessee’s murder cases are unsolved.
“Tennessee spends millions of dollars to pursue executions for a handful of people who have already been incarcerated for decades, while hundreds of Tennessee families continue to wait for their loved ones’ cases to be solved,” he said. “Investment in victim support — and in solving unsolved cases — makes us safer. The death penalty does not and never will.”
For Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick, having time away from work to grieve her son — who was murdered in 2020 — made her feel fortunate compared to other mothers who aren’t as lucky.
“I sit with mothers who are grieving while trying to keep a roof over their heads, find counseling they can’t afford, and guide their other children — who are also traumatized and broken — through those healing journeys with no support,” said Muhammad-McCormick, who directs community outreach for TADP. “These families are not sitting around thinking about executions. They are trying to figure out how to survive.
She said the money going to executions could pay for mental health counseling, funeral assistance, safe housing and other preventative programs.
“The death penalty is not what these victims are asking for,” she said. “It’s what the system offers when it doesn’t know how to offer real support.”
She said the money spent is staggering, and noted the state has spent $600,000 on execution drugs in recent years.
That figure is public because of reporting by The Tennessean. The newspaper argued in court that the state’s secrecy laws obscure several details about the state’s lethal injection drug procurement, but it doesn’t mention the dollar figure spent on drugs.
Costs obscured
It’s unclear how many doses those dollars covered. Other states are in a similar situation. Indiana was found to have spent $900,000 on lethal injection drugs, and they have been used in one execution. It’s not clear whether there are any doses left over. Idaho likely paid a much lower rate — $150,000 for six doses.
The drugs are expensive because pharmaceutical companies won’t sell to states for use in executions. That leaves two methods for obtaining them.
State governments can turn to the “gray market.” That means the drugs are made in a commercial manufacturing facility — so they’re not considered “black-market” medications — but they are purchased outside of the tightly regulated commercial market. Critics say this is illegal, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has seized Tennessee’s lethal injection drug supply before.
Or officials can go to a compounding pharmacy. These labs are much less regulated and use raw materials to make copies of commercial drugs — usually to leave out an ingredient for patients with allergies, or to make medications that are in a shortage.
Either way, states are paying a premium for drugs that are hard to get, and they are legally allowed to hide most details about the purchase due to policies that protect suppliers.
Then there are the less direct costs.
Tennessee’s comptroller released a report on these costs in 2004 after a request from the House Judiciary Committee. The lethal injection drug shortage hadn’t started yet, and wouldn’t for another six years or so.
It found that a recent execution at that time of Robert Glen Coe cost about $11,668. That’s $20,148 in today’s dollars, according the the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ calculator.
“The total cost of execution includes additional security, medical supplies, medical personnel, and the necessary chemicals for the procedure,” the report reads. “The institution also places lighting outside the gates, portable restrooms, and additional security to prevent disputes among demonstrators.”
It also found that the court process is much more expensive compared to cases where prosecutors seek life without parole. It says that’s because the cases “are more complex, more agencies and people are involved in the adjudication of the cases, both the prosecution and defense spend more time in preparation, and the appellate process has more steps.”
However, the report said, the state doesn’t track the cost of the litigation.
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