Tennessee state lawmakers recently testified before a grand jury investigating the February murder of Morgan County corrections Officer Dustin Pedigo. Pedigo was killed at the Morgan County Correctional Complex after an inmate allegedly used a piece of paper to bypass a faulty cell door lock and fatally stab him.

Senators Ken Yager and Tom Hatcher appeared before the panel to address long-standing security vulnerabilities at the facility. Yager has maintained that the tragedy was preventable, pointing to allegations that the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) was aware of easily manipulated cell locks since 2013 but failed to act swiftly. According to Yager, officials ignored requests to install temporary padlocks while awaiting a statewide lock replacement project.

TDOC officials previously told lawmakers that replacing the locks was a time-consuming process and that the Morgan County facility was placed last on the schedule because it was the newest. Meanwhile, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry remains active and ongoing, and prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Reginald Steed, the inmate accused of the murder.