New Tennessee policy: prisoners isolated before execution

The Death Penalty Information Center have reported in a recent article, that Tennessee have deviated from their previous policy and practice. The state have included in their execution policy, a two week period where prisoners are moved to “an enhanced cell” two weeks prior to their execution date, where the only visits permitted are ones from their attorneys.

The state has issued a new “12- hour black out” policy, where in the final 12 hours prior to execution, isolation is further enhanced by denying those on death row the ability to make any phone calls.

Mr Oscar Smith, has been subject to this new policy, and has been the first person to be executed in Tennessee since 2020. Mr Smith’s attorney’s have said the isolation involved in this new policy is “its own form of torture,” and “completely unnecessary.”

You can read the article here.