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As Tennessee prepares to ramp up executions again, here’s the drug it will use

This photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a vial of pentobarbital used in the executions of two inmates in July 2020, according to court filings. Tennessee's updated lethal injection protocols center on the use of pentobarbital. (Department of Justice via AP, File)
This photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a vial of pentobarbital used in the executions of two inmates in July 2020, according to court filings. Tennessee's updated lethal injection protocols center on the use of pentobarbital. (Department of Justice via AP, File) This photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a vial of pentobarbital used in the executions of two inmates in July 2020, according to court filings. Tennessee's updated lethal injection protocols center on the use of pentobarbital. (Department of Justice via AP, File)

By Steven Hale 5 min read

This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters.

If Oscar Smith is executed as scheduled on May 22 at Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, he will be killed with a lethal dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital.

The Tennessee Department of Correction announced in December that it had finalized the new single-drug lethal injection protocol. It replaced the three-drug cocktail the state was planning to use to execute Smith in April 2022, before his execution was called off at the last minute due to the discovery of errors in the procedure.

Now, with a new protocol in place, three men from death row are scheduled to be put to death this year. A group of nine condemned men is challenging that protocol in court, arguing that the use of pentobarbital and “an internal culture of recklessness and noncompliance” inside the TDOC means they’ll risk an inhumane and torturous death. A hearing in the case is set to take place on Friday.

Barring another eleventh-hour reprieve, Smith will be the first person executed in Tennessee in more than five years. Here’s what you should know about the way the state plans to kill him.