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USA - Tennessee. Doctors Urge Governor to Pause Executions for Drug Review

December 3, 2025:

December 3, 2025 - Tennessee. Doctors Urge Governor to Pause Executions for Drug Review—-Doctors: those executed remain alert, feel distressed as they slowly suffocate.

Doctors and lawyers are raising alarms about Tennessee’s lethal injection protocols ahead of another execution in Tennessee scheduled next week.

Harold Wayne Nichols is set for execution on December 11, at 10 a.m.. He was sentenced to death in 1990 after being convicted of raping and murdering Karen Pulley, a 21-year-old student at Chattanooga State University.

Nichols declined to choose his execution method — between the electric chair and lethal injection — by a November 11 deadline. Under state law, the method defaults to lethal injection using the state’s newest protocol, a single dose of pentobarbital.

Doctors and medical professionals across the state sent a letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday, urging him to pause all executions until the new protocol can be reviewed by a court next year.

“From our clinical experience, pentobarbital is unpredictable when used in isolation and can cause great distress and a prolonged and painful death,” the letter reads. “Even when administered in very high dosages, pentobarbital cannot be relied upon to work as an anesthetic. This means that the individual remains sensate and experiences great distress as he or she slowly suffocates.”

The letter was written following the August 5 execution of Byron Black. Media witnesses present for that execution reported that Black was not rendered unconscious, the letter said. He gasped for air, lifted his head multiple times, and said, “It hurts so bad,” according to the letter.

Black’s autopsy showed that he experienced pulmonary edema during his execution, the medical professionals said, and that even after he was declared dead by the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), he exhibited significant cardiac activity for at least two minutes.

Those who signed the letter did not take a position on capital punishment.

However, they said they cannot be involved with executions because doing so violates the Hippocratic Oath, which includes the familiar “do no harm” clause. The oath specifically states, “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked.” Because of this, they said, correctional staff must step in to act as medical professionals without the training and expertise needed.

“Regardless of our feelings about the individual who is being executed, all of us should care deeply about the psychological impact on Tennessee’s correctional officers who have to live with whatever happens in that execution chamber,” the letter said.

Lawyers for Nichols challenged the TDOC weeks before the November 11 deadline for choosing an execution method. They sought release of records from the state related to the new pentobarbital protocol but were denied.

They said the TDOC improperly invoked a secrecy statute to block the release of otherwise public records about lethal injection drugs, testing, and execution procedures. The law allows the state to redact identifying information but requires it to make general information about executions public and available for inspection.

“Given the recent revelations in the execution of Byron Black — that he was conscious and suffered pain as the state injected him with pentobarbital and that his heart showed activity after he was pronounced dead — transparency is more important now than ever,” said Nichols’ attorney Luke Ihnen with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee. “The state owes it to all Tennesseans to ensure that its process for carrying out executions is transparent and complies with the Constitution.”

https://www.memphisflyer.com/doctors-urge-governor-to-pause-executions-for-drug-review