Capital punishment in Tennessee

In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if only a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).

Electrocution is also provided if lethal injection is held unconstitutional or if any drug necessary to carry it out is unavailable through no fault of the Tennessee Department of Correction.

[2] First degree-murder can be punished by death when it involves any of the following aggravating factors:[1] Tennessee has carried out thirteen executions since the reinstatement of the death penalty: one in 2000 under governor Don Sundquist, five from 2006 to 2009 under governor Phil Bredesen, three during the final months of Bill Haslam's second term, including Edmund Zagorski, and four so far under Bill Lee.

[3] The first execution during Bredesen's governorship was that of Sedley Alley, sentenced to death for the rape, torture and murder of 19-year old U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Suzanne Marie Collins.

[4] Another condemned inmate, Steven Ray Thacker, was sentenced to death for a tow truck driver's murder in Tennessee but ultimately executed in Oklahoma for a separate rape-murder in that state.

Faced with difficulties in acquiring the drugs needed for lethal injections, Tennessee law was amended in 2014 to once more permit electrocution as a backup method, in case of any problems with acquiring the drugs needed for lethal injections.