Two officials from the Tennessee Department of Correction have been fired as a result of a blistering report detailing failures in the state’s lethal injection system.
Inspector General Kelly Young and Debbie Inglis, the TDOC’s deputy commissioner and general counsel, were given notices of termination the day prior to the release of an independent review of the state’s execution system in December, Local 10 reported. Though no explicit reason was given for their dismissal, Gov. Bill Lee’s office stated in a press release that the investigation’s findings prompted staff changes at the leadership level.
NEW: The two people fired after the release of a scathing investigation into Tennessee’s lethal injection system involved the Department of Correction’s longtime top attorney and inspector general. @JonathanMattise with the story: https://t.co/W0ht0NyuN5
— Kimberlee Kruesi (@kkruesi) January 19, 2023
The findings detailed that Tennessee had not followed its own lethal injection process since its revision in 2018, according to the Associated Press. When the lethal injection drug pentobarbital became difficult to obtain around 2017, the state opted to go with a three-drug protocol for executions using midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride despite warnings that midazolam did not produce “strong analgesic effects,” another AP report stated. This meant that inmates receiving the lethal injection could possibly feel pain from the effects of the two other drugs.
Further investigations found that, despite Tennessee law, required tests for the drugs weren’t performed before any of the seven executions carried out by the state since 2018. There were also no guidelines in place to keep the chemicals used in lethal injections from going bad. According to AP, the state put a single employee with no pharmaceutical or medical background in charge of procuring drugs for the executions.
Former Correction Commissioner Tony Parker reportedly depended on Inglis, the attorney general’s office and the state’s execution drugs procurer to create the revised lethal injection protocol using the three drugs in 2018, Local 10 reported. As such, the investigation found that Inglis, Parker the drug procurer and the interim commissioner were in the best positions to ensure that protocols were followed.
“The fact of the matter is not one TDOC employee made it their duty to understand the current Protocol’s testing requirements and ensure compliance,” the report said, per AP.
All executions scheduled to take place in 2022 were temporarily reprieved during the investigation, Lee announced in a press release. New execution dates, the release continued, would be set by the Tennessee Supreme Court after the reprieves expire, though as yet there are no executions scheduled for 2023. (RELATED: Alabama Pauses Executions After Third Botched Lethal Injection Since 2018)
As part of his commitment to ensuring a renewed dedication to protocol and procedure, Lee appointed former Arizona Department of Corrections Deputy Director Frank Strada as the new commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Correction, a press release stated. Strada, an Air Force veteran, has over thirty years experience with corrections management, law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the release stated.