Several of Alabama’s most closely monitored death row inmates were found to have illegal drugs in their systems at the time of their executions, raising fresh questions about security inside the state’s prisons.
Toxicology reports reviewed by NBC News show that four men executed since Alabama resumed capital punishment in 2023—including Derrick Dearman, put to death in October 2024—tested positive for narcotics such as methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoids. Dearman had long blamed a meth addiction for the 2016 murders that sent him to death row.
He was not the only case. Fellow inmates Jamie Ray Mills and Carey Dale Grayson also tested positive for meth or synthetic cannabinoids, while Kenneth Smith—the first person in the U.S. executed using nitrogen gas—showed traces of a similar synthetic drug.
Medical experts and former corrections officials say the findings should have triggered at least internal inquiries into how contraband is entering high-security units.
Alabama officials have acknowledged multiple avenues of smuggling, including corrupt corrections officers, visitors, drones dropping drug packages, and even legal papers treated with narcotics. While the Department of Corrections has admitted to staff corruption and trafficking problems, it has not said whether inmates are screened for drugs before being executed.
The revelations come as Alabama prepares to carry out another execution: 50-year-old Geoffrey Todd West, scheduled to die Thursday night, according to Alabama Public Radio.