Tennessee says pair gave incorrect execution drug testimony

By JONATHAN MATTISE
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials have conceded that two of the people most responsible for overseeing the state’s lethal injection drugs testified incorrectly under oath that they were testing the chemicals for bacterial contamination. The revelation from a court filing last week follows an independent report that found Tennessee has never correctly tested drugs for its executions since rewriting the state’s lethal injection protocol in 2018. The admission that the state employee tasked with finding the drugs and a private-sector pharmacist who provides them testified incorrectly came in a court challenge by a death row inmate.