Tennessee is set to execute its first inmate Thursday since the start of the pandemic, planning a lethal injection procedure that has become less common in the state than the electric chair in recent years.
Oscar Smith, 72, is scheduled to die for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife and her teenage sons. The execution, using the state’s preferred method, would come as some other states struggle to secure lethal injection drugs because pharmacies and manufacturers have refused to supply their medications for executions.
In Tennessee, secrecy laws prevent the public from determining just how the drugs for Smith’s execution were obtained.
Smith has argued he should be executed by firing squad — a method South Carolina has been preparing to use in a now-delayed execution, as that state struggles to find execution drugs. Smith reasoned that it is less painful than Tennessee’s two options, but his lawsuit was denied.
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