Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee Republicans keep pushing for execution transparency

Yet another Tennessee Republican lawmaker is pressuring Gov. Bill Lee’s administration for a full accounting of a botched execution before the state attempts to put another person to death.

State Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson, a thorn in the side of GOP leadership, sent a letter Wednesday to Correction Commissioner Frank Strada demanding answers and solutions on the failed effort to execute Tony Carruthers in May.

“Before the Department of Correction asks Tennesseans for blind trust in their ability to carry out an execution, there must be an explanation of the changes that have been established to avoid future procedural errors,” Barrett’s letter says.

The letter to Strada asks whether the department has completed a formal review of the execution, what changes have been made, what types of qualifications and training will be required for the medical team, what safeguards will be used to prevent another “prolonged and unsuccessful attempt to obtain intravenous access,” and whether the department will release a summary of its corrective actions before the next scheduled execution, which is set for Aug. 13 for Darrell Hines, convicted of the 1985 stabbing murder of a Cheatham County woman.

Barrett’s letter comes on the heels of a similar message sent to Lee by a group of eight Republican Senate leaders who requested an independent review of the failed execution before the state commences with another one. The governor has responded to the senators’ letter and appears willing to meet and talk. Lee’s office has not answered questions from the Lookout.

The governor, who is in the final six months of his second term and appears to be coasting to the finish line, called off Carruthers’ execution when the medical team failed to find veins for a main line and secondary line for the lethal chemicals, poking and prodding him for an hour, cutting into his chest and considering using his jugular vein. His attorney called it “barbaric.”

Attorneys for death row inmate Hines, 66, who is gravely ill and confined to bed most of the time, have requested a reprieve pending a review of the state’s protocol for lethal injection. A lawsuit over the state’s lethal injection protocol remains in court.

Barrett tried to pass legislation this session to improve “transparency” around the death penalty, pointing out the governor had to stop the execution of Oscar Smith in 2022 an hour before it was supposed to take place because of questions about the lethal injection drugs and failure to follow protocol. At that time, the governor sought a third-party review and development of new guidelines that were set in 2025, but little, if any, information was released.

Tennessee GOP senators seek review of botched execution

The governor and correction commissioner still haven’t given an explanation, Barrett said. Thus, the public still doesn’t know where it’s buying the chemicals, how old they are, how they’re being mixed or how much they cost, he added.

“If we’re going to be doing it, we need to be doing it correctly,” Barrett said, “any time the government acts, there needs to be transparency.”

Asked whether people who might be qualified to conduct an execution won’t do it because they object on moral and professional grounds, Barrett said, “I don’t know that there’s anybody qualified medically to execute a human being that can do it without violating the Hippocratic Oath. That’s the question I’ve had all along.”

Barrett points out the death penalty puts Tennessee in a weird “juxtaposition.” 

Oddly enough, Barrett sponsored failed legislation this year that would have allowed women who had abortions to be charged with murder and, potentially, face the death penalty. Barrett said Thursday he believes it’s “difficult to be pro-life and pro-death penalty” but added that he’s not trying to do away with the death penalty, only to make sure the government is performing them “efficiently and effectively and openly.” Transparency will enable the public to decide if changes need to be made, he said.

Wielding a sledge?

Comptroller Jason Mumpower will unveil the final audit of Memphis Shelby County Schools next Wednesday, wrapping up the state’s $7 million-plus investigation of the school district.

The accounting firm of CliftonLarsonAllen put together four volumes for the full report on internal controls and IT cybersecurity risks, a forensic audit, a TennCare evaluation and an investigation of Whitehaven High School’s Herbert STEM Center.

For more than a year, Republican lawmakers have been digging for criminal activity in the school system as part of their justification for taking over the district through a state-appointed oversight board.

In early April, Mumpower and Republican lawmakers announced the early part of the audit found $1.14 million in payments deemed “waste or abuse” over three fiscal years and another $1.7 million in transactions that failed to comply with policies and procedures.

Their press conference came just in time to cobble together more support for “takeover” legislation and pass it. 

Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee Republicans couldn’t wait to unveil Memphis schools audit

But a federal judge this week temporarily blocked the takeover after district officials argued it could postpone school and force buildings to be closed, according to a Chalkbeat report.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called the audit the worst he’d seen in nearly 50 years in the legislature. Memphis Sen. London Lamar and others agreed with the need to improve technology and accounting practices but said finding less than $3 million in bookkeeping irregularities in a $5.7 billion budget over three years didn’t justify state control of the system.

Considering Tennessee is phasing out the Achievement School District, mainly a collection of charter schools in Memphis, after spending roughly a billion dollars for sketchy results, state “takeovers” are hardly winning friends.

Maybe this one will teach kids to calculate and conjugate. But the state tells us students are making progress. When do we start on the quadratic equation?

Explaining the contract

The legislature’s Fiscal Review Committee recently approved a $356 million increase in the state’s maximum liability to the company handling its two private-school voucher programs.

The move pushed Tennessee’s contract amount to Student First Technologies, LLC, to nearly $637 million over the life of a five-year contract to run an online portal where parents can apply for the funds and receive payments for private-school costs.

Education officials declined to break down the expense immediately, but a department spokesperson finally told the Lookout this week that the cost of services to Student First Technologies is $4.8 million over five years and the rest of the money, or “liability,” is for the vouchers or “scholarships.”

Despite problems in Arkansas and West Virginia, the company has met obligations under Tennessee’s contract, spokesperson Amanda Chin said.

Apparently, the state allots all the voucher money to the vendor, which then doles it out.

The contract increase was needed after lawmakers expanded the size of the “Education Freedom Scholarship” program to 35,000 students. 

Look for more expansion in 2027. The voucher program can increase automatically by 5,000 students, based on the number of applicants, and the legislature can always bump it up. That will depend on the money, and it will be up to lawmakers and the next governor to reach an agreement for widening Tennessee’s private school system.

Not so scientific

The Tennessee Firearms Association announced gubernatorial poll results this week that might show a chink in U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s armor.

The association’s online poll from June 17-23, which its director said is neither a formal scientific survey nor an endorsement, found 46.7% favoring state Rep. Monty Fritts of Kingston, 35.8% for U.S. Rep. John Rose of Cookeville, 13.1% for Blackburn and 3% for Democratic candidate Jerri Green of Memphis, 1.2% for others and independents and .2% for Democrat Carnita Atwater.

“Obviously, Tennessee voters who care about the right to keep and bear arms are paying close attention to the 2026 governor’s race particularly given the dismal failures on this issue by Governors Bill Haslam and Bill Lee. These results provide an early snapshot of candidate preference among those who participated in TFA’s statewide online preference poll,” Executive Director John Harris said in an email of the polling results obtained by the Lookout.

Readers shouldn’t put any stock in these numbers.

Yet they come out at the same time Blackburn continues to refuse to debate Fritts and Rose or answer questions from the press. WTVF’s Ben Hall tried to speak with Blackburn this week but got only the cold shoulder.

Ahead in most other polls, Blackburn clearly doesn’t want to make a mistake on a public stage, telling Hall she talks to Tennesseans every day and using the excuse that she’s on federal time and can’t mix that with campaigning. 

It’s the same response the Lookout received when trying to approach Blackburn after an event at the Wilson County Fairgrounds.

That’s more of a cop-out than an answer, and it’s sounding like a broken record.

“It’s a circle of deception / It’s a hall of strangers / It’s a cage without a key / You can feel the danger” *

*Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – “Insider”