The federal public defender’s office in Middle Tennessee is calling for substantial reforms to Tennessee’s lethal injection process.
Kit Thomas, deputy chief for the Capital Habeas Unit, said “egregious failures … will keep happening until Tennessee takes meaningful steps to increase transparency, oversight, and accountability in the execution process. Executions must not resume until it does so.”
The statement follows comments from Gov. Bill Lee, who has called for a new investigation and postponed the other execution scheduled for this year.
“An investigation is only as good as the reforms it produces. This investigation should have been launched in May when TDOC subjected Tony Carruthers to more than an hour of pain and suffering before his execution, like Ms. Pike’s, had to be called off,” Thomas wrote.
Follow for updates: Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike
Lee did not directly answer reporter questions Thursday morning as to why he didn’t issue a moratorium after Carruthers’ execution.
Thomas also criticized the governor’s decision to appoint Frank Strada as corrections commissioner after he oversaw “problematic” executions in Arizona. Lee told reporters it’s too early to tell what went wrong with Pike’s execution or who is ultimately responsible.
“So far as we know, the Department of Correction followed exactly the protocol as outlined,” Lee said. “There was no reason to expect it to not work … But something didn’t go well last night, and we need to find out why.”
The defender cited Tennessee’s prior lethal injection moratorium and the concerns that remained with the state’s new protocol.
“The governor’s actions have fallen short,” Thomas wrote. “Enough is enough. Tennessee must not resume executions until meaningful reforms have been identified and implemented.”
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