Tennessee's barely functioning death penalty is on the verge of revival after state officials finally settled on a new lethal injection drug and scheduled a man to die for the first time in more than a year.

*                              *                          *

But last month, the state said it had solved its lethal injection drug problem by switching to pentobarbital, an anesthetic most commonly used to euthanize pets. State officials scheduled Nickolus Johnson, convicted of killing a policeman in Bristol in 2004, to die on April 22, 2014, at 7:10 p.m.

*                              *                          *

But the switch to pentobarbital has opponents worried that the state's death penalty is gearing up yet again.

That's a good thing, said Michael Rushford, president of the Sacramento, Calif.-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports the death penalty. He said compounding pharmacies could solve the ongoing supply problems.

"I think the compounding approach will probably be the new 'hip' thing to do. That will solve that problem," he said. "This may be the end of this kind of challenge."