After five years with no executions in our state, the Tennessee Supreme Court has set execution dates for four men on Tennessee’s death row.

The dates set by the court are:

Oscar Smith, May 22

Byron Black, August 5

Donald Middlebrooks, September 24

Harold Nichols, December 11

Now is the time to ask Governor Lee to stop these executions.

The new lethal injection protocol recently announced by the Tennessee Department of Correction is more secretive than the previous protocol, despite the governor’s insistence that the process be transparent. The new protocol also relies on pentobarbital, a drug that has been shown to cause unconstitutional suffering in those who are executed.

TAKE ACTION NOW and let Governor Lee know that resuming executions does not make us safer. The resources Tennessee spends on executions should instead go to support those harmed by violence and on violence prevention initiatives.

BACKGROUND: In 2022, prior to the release of the findings of an independent review of Tennessee’s problematic lethal injection protocol, Governor Bill Lee stated, “To ensure continued transparency for Tennesseans, we will publicly share the report and any additional action when our internal assessment is complete.” In a press statement about the release of the report, the governor went on to say, “I have thoroughly reviewed the findings in the independent investigator’s report and am directing several actions to ensure the Tennessee Department of Correction adheres to the proper protocol.”

On January 9, 2025, after initially refusing to release the new execution protocol to the media, the Tennessee Department of Correction released a redacted version. The new protocol is noticeably shorter than the previous one and includes only a single page on the lethal injection chemicals with no specific directions for testing of the drugs. The new protocol also removes a requirement that the drug, pentobarbital, come from a licensed pharmacist and authorizes the state to deviate from the protocol whenever the commissioner deems it necessary. The protocol is supposed to act as Tennessee’s own official set of rules governing its execution process, so by its very nature it cannot be open to deviation on a whim.  

Then on January 16, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was withdrawing the federal government’s lethal injection protocol based on concerns that execution by pentobarbital may cause unconstitutional pain and suffering. The DOJ’s review of the use of this drug for lethal injection confirms what medical experts have said for years: pentobarbital causes excruciating pain when used to carry out executions and violates the Eighth Amendment. The use of pentobarbital in executions also creates a serious risk of trauma to the correctional staff who are charged with carrying out executions. The greater the secrecy around this protocol, the greater the risk of harm to TDOC employees.

On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted 37 federal death sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, representing the largest number of death sentences commuted by any President in the modern era.

YOUR ACTIONS mattered in achieving this result. Thank you!

Calls for President Biden to act had been growing as letters from hundreds of individuals and groups, including TADP and other state advocates, business leaders, Black pastors, Catholics, innocence organizations, prosecutors, former judges, mental health and intellectual disability advocates, victim family members, were made public, stressing concerns about the federal death penalty system that warranted commutations.

This decision means that no federal prisoner will be at imminent risk of execution under the incoming administration. During President-elect Trump’s first term, the federal government carried out 13 executions in a seven-month period, an unprecedented number and pace.

A majority of those executed during this execution spree were people of color, while several had claims of intellectual disability, severe mental illness, racial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, and other serious problems in their cases.

The cases of those whose sentences were commuted reflect many of these same problems, and much like the cases of those executed, the courts have been unable or unwilling to address those problems.

“This is a historic day,” said Martin Luther King, III, who publicly urged the President to commute the federal death row. “By commuting these sentences, President Biden has done what no President before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.”

Today is another historic day as we celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and inaugurate a new president. But it is also a day that raises concerns for many of us. We are concerned about the future of our democracy, the growing divide between the haves and the have nots, the climate crisis, and the epidemic of gun violence, among many other things. We may feel disillusioned and powerless as we take stock of all that we face. The challenges seem too great.

Celebrating Dr. King today is a antidote to that disillusionment and powerlessness. This day we celebrate knowing that our nation has faced hard times before. Dr. King’s own life and death remind us of the risk we take when we follow his example to stand for justice as well as what we can achieve.

Because we did not give up or give in, President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 men. They will live because our collective action mattered. It happened because we made it happen. And, we will keep acting and speaking and marching and voting and praying and singing and whatever we must to ensure that Dr. King’s legacy endures–with justice rolling down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream–no matter how long it takes or how hard the journey is.

Friends, never underestimate what we can do together.

Photo: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) holds a press conference at the Savoy Hotel in London, UK, September 1964. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

There is a very real opportunity to convince President Biden to commute the sentences of everyone on the federal death row before he leaves office, but we need to act fast.

Can you please add your name to our joint petition urging President Biden to act?

During the last seven months of the previous Trump administration, President Trump executed 13 men and women who were on the federal death row. Many of those executed had intellectual disabilities, serious mental illnesses, and histories of deep trauma, and their legal proceedings were tainted by racial bias, junk science, and other flaws. These deaths also occurred despite calls for mercy from victims’ families and demands for fairness from a broad coalition of Americans across political and faith backgrounds.

Will you please help us urge President Biden to save the lives of the 40 individuals currently on the federal death row by converting their sentences to prison terms?

Add Your Name Here!

The federal death penalty is a deeply flawed system, particularly for Black, Brown, and economically disadvantaged people, who are the most vulnerable to wrongful convictions and death sentences. It does not deter crime or enhance public safety. Continuing the federal death penalty increases the risk of killing innocent people and deepening systemic inequalities.

We believe that if we stand together, we can convince President Biden to use his authority to protect and save the lives of the individuals on death row. Will you join us?

Thank you!

P.S. You can learn more and add your name here.

On September 24, 2024, 55-year-old Marcellus “Kaliifah” Williams was executed by the State of Missouri for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle. He maintained his innocence from the beginning and for 23 years until his execution.

Though there was strong evidence of innocence in his case, including a crime scene covered with forensic evidence that contained no link to Mr. Williams; unreliable testimony provided by incentivized witnesses; racial bias in his jury selection, opposition to his execution from the victim’s family and the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney; and Mr. Williams’ willingness to accept an Alford plea for a sentence of life without parole so he could continue to fight for his freedom, he was executed because Missouri’s governor, attorney general, and state and federal courts did nothing to stop it.

Since January, St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell had sought to stop this execution, stating that new evidence suggested Williams was “actually innocent.”

In a statement following the execution, General Bell said, “Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline that decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty. If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”

The NAACP said Mr. Williams’ death harkened back to the days of racist terrorism.

“Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,” the group stated in a post on X.  “Governor Parson had the responsibility to save this innocent life, and he didn’t. The NAACP was founded in 1909 in response to the barbaric lynching of Black people in America — we were founded exactly because of people like Governor Parson who perpetuate violence against innocent Black people. We will hold Governor Parson accountable. When DNA evidence proves innocence, capital punishment is not justice — it is murder.”

On October 17, Texas plans to execute Robert Roberson, a man with autism who has spent over 20 years on Texas’s death row for a crime that never happened. New evidence shows that Mr. Roberson’s daughter, Nikki, died of natural and accidental causes and that no crime occurred.

There is still time to stop this execution so that another man isn’t executed for something he didn’t do.

Sign the petition to urge Governor Abbott to stop Mr. Robertson’s execution. You can call the governor’s office at 361-264-9653.

Watch and share this video as Rev. Brian Wharton meets with Mr. Roberson for the first time since 2003, when Mr. Roberson was wrongfully convicted. Rev. Wharton played a crucial role in the prosecution of Mr. Roberson and now carries a burden for guilt for the part that he played in this miscarriage of justice.

The execution of one innocent person is one too many for the death penalty system to continue to exist.

We simply can’t trust this failed system to determine who lives and who dies. Enough.

Even in this time of divisive rhetoric and politics, we can agree that all of us want to feel and to be safe.

But what is safety? If you ask people what safety means to them, you will get a wide range of answers.

Safety is not just the absence of violence, as our colleagues at Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) remind us. Instead, a community is safe when it is thriving and the well-being of its people is on the rise. That means ensuring that people have good jobs, quality housing, access to every facet of health care, excellent education, and more.

When people don’t have what they need to thrive, then crime and violence will follow. A recent report by Prison Policy Initiative shows that Tennessee has the 9th highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, with little impact on violence. The only nation that incarcerates more per capita is El Salvador. According to the report, Tennessee incarcerates 817 individuals in state prisons, local jails, federal prisons, and other systems of confinement per 100,000 people.

Still, some of Tennessee’s lawmakers tell us that we are not locking up enough people. They jump on the fear and outrage we experience in the wake of violent incidents to double down on expanding a decadeslong, failed mass incarceration experiment instead of listening to the needs of those most impacted by violence and following the data to find the most effective way forward.

Since District Attorney General Steve Mulroy was elected in Shelby County a few years ago, some Tennessee lawmakers have been laser-focused on finding a way to subvert the will of Memphis voters and to oust him from serving as DA, simply because they don’t like his politics. There has been a concerted effort to provide misinformation to the public, laying the blame for violent crime in Memphis at the feet of General Mulroy and using this narrative to strengthen the power of the Tennessee Attorney General while taking power from elected prosecutors.

MLK50, a nonprofit Memphis newsroom focused on poverty, power and public policy, recently published this story by Katherine Burgess, “State Sen. Taylor is seeking to oust DA Mulroy. The move is rooted in misinformation.”

According to the article:

“In a news conference held June 17, Taylor would not give specific examples of instances when Mulroy has refused to prosecute broad swaths of crimes, instead referring reporters to his X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook pages…MLK50 could not find an example cited by Taylor in which Mulroy has, of his own volition, decided not to prosecute entire types of crimes. Here, we go through some of Taylor’s most frequent criticisms of Mulroy and why they are misinformation.”

Particularly if you live in Memphis, I hope you will read this article to better understand the degree to which misinformation and lack of context are distorting the realities on the ground and distracting from the real work that all of us, regardless of politics, need to do to truly tackle the issue of violence in our state. Until we can have honest conversations based on facts and center the voices of those who are most impacted, our communities will not experience the safety that we all deserve.

Read the MLK50 article here.

Photo by Laramie Renae

(Reverend Timothy Holton is a surviving family member of four murder victims and is the cousin of Daryl Holton, a man executed in Tennessee. These are excerpts from a recent presentation prepared by Reverend Holton.)

Throughout the process of collecting my thoughts to share, I have been pursued by the words of one of my favorite hymns: Here I am, Lord, is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night, and I will go Lord, if you lead me…well, here’s the deal: when you say those words and take that “YES” step toward God, it turns out what you agree to might not look like what you expected.

For me, this all began on November 30, 1997. I was a 17-year-old senior at Moore County High School in Lynchburg, cramming for midterms and living my best teenage life. That rainy Sunday afternoon, in the neighboring town of Shelbyville (where I now live), my cousin Daryl Holton used a military style rifle and took the lives of his four children: Stephen was 12, Brent was 10, Eric was 6, and Kayla was 4.  A few days later, I served as pallbearer and carried each of their small, white caskets to their final resting place in the little cemetery in rural Bedford County.  A little more than a year and a half later, Daryl’s trial concluded with four murder convictions, and a death sentence.  Almost 10 years later, at 1:00 am on September 12, 2007, Daryl was seated in Tennessee’s electric chair.  Twenty-five minutes later, he was pronounced dead. My life’s path changed dramatically, fracturing me in two parts: mourning the murder of my cousins, and grieving their murderer; all family whom I loved. I yearned deeply for an internal reconciliation that I believed, and finally decided, would never come.

(Reverend Stacy Harwell-Dye of West End United Methodist Church in Nashville invited Reverend Holton to attend the TADP vigil on the evening of Billy Ray Irick’s execution in 2018. Reverend Holton then became actively involved with TADP and joined the Board of Directors. He also joined the Visitation on Death Row program to become a visitor on death row. In the following excerpt, he shares an experience that happened during his orientation to the program when he was taken on a tour of Unit 2.)

Overwhelmed, overstimulated, and trying to manage an unruly bouquet of emotions, I noticed someone moving toward the corner of the room where I stood…not just moving toward my corner of the room, but one of the inmates moving directly, toward, me.  What could he want?  When he was within arm’s length, he stuck out his hand, and with a warm smile and comforting voice he said “Hi, I’m Terry King, you must be Tim Holton, Daryl’s cousin. Daryl was my neighbor while he was here, most all of us knew him actually. Would you like to see his cell, where he lived?” I can’t recall if I even responded, but suddenly I was standing at cell C-206, where my cousin spent the last 10 years of his life; where he ate, slept, where he lived.

In that moment, it felt like time stood still, and I experienced a peace beyond anything I had ever experienced before wash over me.  All of the trauma, all of the guilt, all of the wounds I had carried for all of those years about Daryl, and Stephen, and Brent, and Eric, and Kayla, they all bubbled up from the depths of my mind and body, and as they rose they changed, and the healing I thought impossible, instantly became more than just possible, it became reality, and it happened in cell C-206, on death row. 

Now as a volunteer chaplain at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, every week I make my way down the walkways lined with razor wire and through the large heavy doors that still occasionally startle me when they slam shut, to be with my friends in Unit 2.  We talk, we pray, we laugh, we support and nurture one another, and we meet to wrestle with theology and grow in God. 

The Spirit’s reaching into one of the darkest and most painful experiences in my life and unbinding the grace within it; the Spirit’s reaching across our connection to straighten the twisted and tangled pathway to this ministry, the Spirit’s reaching through Terry King’s handshake transforming painful trauma into healed peace and softened empathy; the Spirit’s reaching through my spouse Jim who doesn’t always understand or share my fearless nature in this work but loves me unconditionally and continually picks me up and lends me his strength when this hard work becomes more than one person can bear; and the Spirit’s continual defiance of the isolating bounds of razor wire walkways and locked solid metal doors to meet a group of condemned men who are my friends, my family, my people, and to dwell with them in a community overflowing with boundless love, for that, for all of that, I say, thanks be to God.

According to Amnesty International’s Global Report 2023, these nations carried out the most executions last year.

China is estimated to execute thousands of people annually but classifies the number as a state secret. We can safely assume then that China is the world’s leading executioner.

Excluding China, of the known number of executions in 2023, Iran came in first with at least 853 executions, accounting for 74% of the global total. Saudi Arabia placed second with 172 executions accounting for 15%. Somalia followed with at least 38 executions. The United States came in fourth at 24 executions, and Iraq carried out at least 16. 

The number of executions carried out by these nations and a handful of others, 1153, is the highest number of executions since 2015, but the spike can mostly be attributed to 48% rise in executions in Iran.

If the fact that the U.S. keeps company with nations that our government regularly condemns for human right violations and oppressive policies makes you uncomfortable, then good. It should. The U.S. position on the death penalty impugns our nation’s credibility, particularly as our government chastises others nations for their human rights records while continuing a policy that no other western, industrialized nation employs.

Now for some good news: Only 16 countries carried out executions in 2023. This represents the lowest number of countries executing on record. Even if the U.S. is among this number, it is encouraging that more nations are moving away from the death penalty. In fact, the parliaments of Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, and Zimbabwe all considered abolition bills last year.

Our nation can and must do better. It’s time to keep better company.

Read more of Amnesty’s report.

The legislative session in Tennessee has ended, and because of your support, more victims of violent crime in Tennessee will have access to the help that they need to heal.

The legislature overwhelmingly passed HB 1021/ SB 1416 sponsored by Chairman Clay Doggett (R) and Senator Paul Rose (R), expanding access to the Tennessee Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund for more victims of violence in Tennessee. This legislation will allow more Tennesseans who have experienced harm to access the support that they need to recover and to heal in the wake of a violent crime. This fund of last resort can assist with lost wages, funeral expenses, and counseling services.

Background and Impact

Over the last two years with the leadership of TADP Community Outreach Coordinator Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick, TADP has worked closely with victim advocates, including Mothers Over Murder, Tennessee Voices for Victims, You Have the Power, and Raphah Institute to address some of the challenges that keep survivors and surviving family members of murder victims from receiving assistance to aid in their recovery from violent crime. TADP is deeply grateful to all of these groups for their hard work and support.

When victims get the help they need, they are more likely to cooperate with law enforcement and less likely to be trapped in cycles of violence. This support is critical if we want to make Tennessee safer for everyone and end our reliance on a failed death penalty.

TADP is currently planning a statewide campaign with Mothers Over Murder to educate victims of violence about this fund, how to access it, and to learn what other obstacles need to be addressed to allow even more people to benefit. This campaign will empower the voices of those directly impacted by violence to educate the public and lawmakers alike that more punishment is not what victims need but instead they need more support to heal and more community-based investments to prevent violence in the first place, which is the real alternative to the death penalty.  

Other Legislation

Legislation to remove secrecy from the lethal injection protocol, sponsored by Senator Mark Pody (R) and Chairman Justin Lafferty (R) did not move this session, though Americans for Prosperity and the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government championed the bill, along with TADP and Tennesseans for Capital Punishment Reform (TCPR). We will continue to push for transparency around lethal injection, particularly in light of a new report that demonstrates a “disproportionate number of botched executions involve Black individuals, underscoring the deep-seated biases that pervade the system and that state secrecy and cover-ups further compound the issue, with authorities concealing vital information about the execution process and the drugs used. Secrecy laws prevent transparency and allowing states to perpetuate the myth of humane executions while hiding the harsh realities from public scrutiny.”

Despite our best efforts to contain it, a bill to expand the death penalty for the non-lethal crime of child rape passed the legislature and is on its way to Governor Lee. TADP will now mount a campaign to ask Governor Lee to veto this misguided legislation.

Though we can all agree that this is a reprehensible crime, this legislation will only serve to make Tennessee’s kids less safe. The real motivation behind this bill is an attempt to overturn U.S. Supreme Court precedent that determined the death penalty should only be available as a punishment for murder.

If protecting kids was the priority, Tennessee lawmakers would have listened to the child service providers who continue to publicly share their concerns that this legislation will only chill the reporting of this crime since 90% of offenders are family or friends of the child. It will also trap children in decades of capital litigation that will only serve to re-traumatize them, particularly if they have to testify over and over again. At the same time, the state will spend millions of taxpayer dollars to litigate a test case with no certainty of a specific outcome. Tennessee lawmakers should instead be directing these resources to try to protect our children from the abuse in the first place and ensure survivors have access to mental health treatment and the proper support.

With your support, TADP will keep up this fight, working to end the death penalty, to prevent violence, and to support all those who are harmed–which will make us ALL safer.

Photo: TADP and TCPR staff at 2024 Justice Day on the Hill.

The holidays are upon us, and there is much to celebrate!

Because of your generosity, TADP has made great strides in limiting the death penalty’s scope while our state hasn’t carried out an execution since 2020! We are now at a crossroads with significant opportunities to further limit the death penalty and to create a new public safety model for Tennessee.

With your gift today, TADP will build upon our progress to create a safer and more just state for all of us without relying on a failed death penalty system to get us there.

TADP’s ongoing work has made it apparent to us that if Tennesseans truly want to embrace a culture that promotes life and public safety for all, we must not only focus on ending the death penalty but also on healing, crime prevention, and investing in trauma informed solutions to address violence. To reflect this expanded focus, TADP’s Board of Directors officially updated our mission statement to read: Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty works to honor life by abolishing the death penalty, preventing violence, and supporting those who experience harm.

TADP is strengthening relationships with important allies to fight the death penalty, educating the public and lawmakers alike about the failure of “tough on crime” policies, and promoting evidence-based solutions to prevent crime, to address harm, and to create a new narrative around public safety.

To that end, TADP Community Outreach Coordinator Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick will conduct a statewide campaign in 2024, in partnership with Mothers Over Murder, to educate victims of violence about how to access support from the Tennessee Criminal Compensation Fund while we advocate for legislative changes to make the fund more accessible to more Tennesseans. Research suggests that those who do harm were often once victims themselves, reinforcing our belief that better victims’ support can contribute to crime reduction.

Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Director Jasmine Woodson is partnering with conservative allies on violence prevention initiatives while lifting up the disconnect between the current death penalty system and the conservative values of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and pro-life policies to move conservatives away from the death penalty.

And, TADP will also continue to tell Tennesseans about the other failures of the death penalty system, including the endemic racism, the real risk of executing the innocent, and the human and financial costs of maintaining a broken system that does not make us safer and traps surviving family members of murder victims in a legal process for decades, making their healing reliant on what happens to those who have cause them harm.

We can do better. We must do better. And with your support, we will do better.

Thank you from all of us at TADP! Happy Holidays!!!

Our dear friend and longtime TADP board member, Charlie Strobel, died on Sunday morning. He was 80 years old.

I am still processing and will be for some time. Charlie has been my dear friend for over twenty years and has served on the TADP board since I became director 17 years ago. I honestly can’t imagine not having him around.

Charlie desperately wanted to end the death penalty and spent much of his time supporting TADP in that mission. He and his family were incredible witnesses to the “miracle of forgiveness,” as he called it, when his mother was murdered in Nashville, and they fought against the death penalty for the man who murdered her. He shared his story all over the state and in the short film about TADP’s work called To Honor Life.

If you have never watched this film, I encourage you to do so. The statistics are dated since the film is several years old now, but the stories are timeless and speak to the need to finally end the death penalty.

Over the years, Charlie was also active with Murder Victims Families for Human Rights and served on a legislative death penalty study committee in Tennessee. He did all of this in addition to his tireless work on behalf of the unhoused, as founder of Room in the Inn.

I was able to spend some good time with him over these past months and was actually with him on Friday for several hours. He was tired but still had that twinkle in his eye! All of Nashville is grieving, and well beyond Nashville, as Charlie was a light and always will be. He stood with those among us who are the most vulnerable…those who are poor, sick, and in prison. And he was a champion for the unhoused. I won’t call him a saint because that made him roll his eyes, but he was that to me and to so many of us.

We love you, Charlie, and we are all better people because we knew you and loved you.

Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done.

When we end the death penalty in Tennessee, you will be one of the reasons why.

Rest in peace, sweet friend,

Stacy

Photo by Jeff Moles