Lee: Tennessee high court likely won't set executions soon

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee said the Tennessee Supreme Court will likely wait for the state to finalize changes to its lethal injection process before it schedules future executions, after a blistering report found multiple flaws in how inmates are put to death.

An independent review found that Tennessee has not complied with its own lethal injection process since it was revised in 2018, resulting in several executions being conducted without proper testing of the drugs used.

The review was requested by Lee, a Republican, who paused all executions in May. At the time, Lee confirmed that the state had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested before the scheduled execution of Oscar Smith, which was called off shortly before it was supposed to take place.

Depositions and other filings in legal challenges by attorneys for death row inmates gave glimpses into issues that were much broader and spanned further back than Smith's planned execution, piercing through some of the secrecy built into Tennessee's administration of the death penalty. Yet, it wasn't until the release of the review's report last week that the public learned the full magnitude and scope of the systematic problems surrounding Tennessee's lethal injection protocol.

Lee has since promised that new leaders inside the corrections department will change the lethal injection protocol along with input from the governor’s and attorney general’s offices. He also said the state will review and revise departmental training on the execution process.

However, no timeline has been provided on when those changes will be completed. Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court is currently free to issue death warrants for death row inmates.

“(The Supreme Court) certainly understands that we need to create a protocol that is...