Tennessee: Advocates ask for reprieve of executions and request that government invest resources into support

A recent article has reported that Tennessee is scheduled to resume executions in May 2025. Victims’ rights advocates have asked Governor Bill Lee for a reprieve and have argued that there are better ways to spend state money than administering capital punishment.

The costs associated with administering capital punishment include costs associated with the executions themselves and the court process.

The costs associated with carrying executions for the supply of the lethal injection drugs is unclear in that it varies. It has been reported that some states pay anywhere between $150,000 to $900,000 on lethal injection drugs. The total cost of exeuction includes but not limited to, the drugs required for the injection, medical supplies, medical personnel and additional security.

The article reports that the court process itself is also more expensive than the costs associated with cases where prosecutors seek life without parole.

As such, the costs associated with administering capital punishment are extensive and advocates have requested that this money could be spent more effectively by delivering more support.

Family members of murder victims on behalf of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP) delivered a formal letter requesting the reprieve saying that there were ways they could have been helped in the aftermath of the deaths of their loved ones, and that the state government should invest its resource in support instead of retributions.

Timothy Holton discusses his experience of his cousin being executed for the killing of his four children in 1997. Mr Holton provides that coupled with the added trauma and pain, the death penalty tore his family apart. Mr Holton says that what his family needed, was ultimately support and trauma- informed care. Counselling and a better understanding of how untreated mental illness led to this event is one option the state could have taken.

You can read the article here