Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has halted all executions in his state for the remainder of the year 2022, also announced an investigation into the alleged “oversight” of the state’s lethal injection process.
The Republican granted a last minute delay to the inmate who is in the death row, Oscar Franklin Smith, last week, whose execution was scheduled for the past 21 of April.
Lee ordered a third-party review of the state’s lethal injection process, hiring the former federal prosecutor, Ed Stanton, to carry out the respective investigation.
“I review every death penalty case and believe it is an appropriate punishment for heinous crimes”, Lee said in a statement. “However, the death penalty is an extremely serious matter, and I hope that the Tennessee Department of Correction leaves no doubt that the procedures are being followed correctly.”
Smith’s execution was one of five scheduled for this year. Those sentenced to death in the entity have the right to choose between execution in the electric chair instead of lethal injection, which is the pre-established option in the system.
Governor Bill Lee announced all previously scheduled executions in 2022 will be paused amid plans to launch a third-party review of the lethal injection testing oversight that resulted in a temporary reprieve for death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith .https://t.co/qkl2CdYPP5
—Madison Glassman (@MadisonG_TV) May 2, 2019
Three of the four executions in Tennessee have been carried out via electric chair since the year 2019, according to the governor’s office.
Smith was sentenced to death for stabbing and fatally shooting his ex-wife, Judith Smith, and his two sons, Jason and Chad. Burnett, in the year 1200.
Both the governor and the Supreme Court of the United States rejected the defendant’s appeals prior to his execution originally scheduled for 21 in April of this year. Lee granted the break an hour before the lethal injection death took place, while he was with his lawyer .
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