Tennessee Fails Attempt to Execute Tony Carruthers

Despite serious questions about the reliability of Tony Carruthers's conviction and death sentence, Tennessee attempted to put him to death by lethal injection last week. He was strapped to a gurney and subjected to multiple painful and bloody punctures to access his veins while he writhed in agony for an extended period of time before Tennessee's executioners declared they could not execute him.

Mr. Carruthers, 57, was scheduled to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on May 21. The Tennessee Department of Corrections told USA Today that, after the execution team established "the primary IV line," it "'could not find another suitable vein' for a backup line, which is required under the state's lethal injection protocol."

Mr. Carruthers's lawyer, Maria DeLiberato, was in the room while prison staff tried for more than an hour to set the backup IV line.

She told reporters she saw Mr. Carruthers "wincing and groaning" as the execution team tried his left arm, left hand, and left foot and then attempted to establish a central line, which also failed. She said it was "horrible" to watch.

"There was a lot of blood," she said.

Mr. Carruthers groaned when a doctor started pushing a needle in, Ms. DeLiberato told the Associated Press. Reporters could hear him groaning but could not see into the room because the blinds were kept closed.

After the execution team failed to establish a central line, the warden called off the execution.

Serious Questions About Reliability

Tony Carruthers and another man were charged with kidnapping and killing three people in Memphis in 1994. Prosecutors argued that one of the people killed was a drug dealer whose local drug trade Mr. Carruthers wanted to control.

Mr. Carruthers has consistently maintained his innocence for decades.

No physical evidence has ever connected him to the crime-in fact, DPIC reported, five fingerprints recovered from the crime scene do not match Mr. Carruthers and their source remains unidentified. Critically, the State has refused to compare DNA collected from the scene to another suspect in the case.

With no forensic evidence, prosecutors relied at trial almost entirely on the testimony of a jailhouse informant who was paid for his testimony-a fact prosecutors refused to disclose until 2024 despite requests from defense counsel, DPIC reported.

An appellate court found the trial ​was "so filled with errors due to [Mr. Carruthers's] forced self-rep­re­sen­ta­tion" that it was required to order a new trial for Mr. Carruthers's co-defen­dant, who affirmed that Mr. Carruthers was not involved in the crime, DPIC reported. The co-defendant identified an alternate suspect-whose fingerprints and DNA Mr. Carruthers argues should be compared to the crime scene evidence.

Faith lead­ers, civ­il rights advo­cates, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and more than 130,000 petition signers called on Gov. Bill Lee to grant clemen­cy or stay Mr. Carruthers's exe­cu­tion to allow DNA test­ing. The governor refused to stop the execution and the Tennessee Supreme Court also denied Mr. Carruthers's request to compare the DNA to the alternate suspect.

"Permitting Tony Carruthers's execution to move forward without ordering DNA testing was already a profound injustice," Ms. DeLiberato told Newsweek. "Today, that injustice became outright barbaric after Mr. Carruthers was subject to a botched execution attempt."

Mr. Carruthers's attorneys told the Associated Press they will continue to push for DNA testing that could exonerate Mr. Carruthers.

He would not be the first person exonerated from death row in Tennessee, where DPIC reports one person has been exonerated for every five people exe­cu­ted-a troubling rate of error that exceeds the national rate.

"Tony Carruthers' case raised serious concerns about mental illness, representation, innocence, and access to DNA testing," DPIC said in a statement. "The state's failed attempt today to execute him presents an additional issue surrounding the qualifications of the people tasked with executing prisoners."

A Long-Troubled System

After the failed execution attempt, the governor announced a one-year reprieve during which the state will not attempt to execute Mr. Carruthers.

Mr. Carruthers's attorneys say the reprieve should be made permanent-and not only for Mr. Carruthers.

"We are incredibly relieved Governor Lee issued a reprieve," Ms. DeLiberato said. "We will fight to ensure that the state never again attempts to put Mr. Carruthers and his family through this torture. We will also continue to push the governor to use this moment to allow the forensic testing that should have happened long ago. Tennessee cannot continue torturing a man while refusing to answer serious questions about his innocence."

Gov. Lee recently paused executions after an undisclosed "technical oversight" forced him to call off the execution of Oscar Smith on April 21, 2022. A third-party investigation revealed "troubling" and "shocking" failures to comply with the state's lethal injection protocol.

On Tuesday, in light of these longstanding problems, Mr. Carruthers's lawyers asked the governor to again pause all executions until legal challenges to the state's 2025 execution protocol are resolved.

A History of Failed Execution Attempts

Mr. Carruthers is the ninth person to survive a failed execution in the last 80 years, according to Amherst College professor Austin Sarat, who co-authored a 2025 article documenting failed executions.

Most of these failed attempts have occurred since 2009, when Romell Broom survived an excruciating lethal injection attempt in Ohio.

They include botched attempts to execute Alva Campbell in 2017, also in Ohio; Doyle Lee Hamm in 2018, Alan Eugene Miller in 2022, and Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022-all in Alabama; and Thomas Creech in Idaho in 2024.

Only Mr. Creech is still alive. Mr. Broom, Mr. Campbell, and Mr. Hamm died in prison.

Contravening strong legal and moral arguments against giving state officials a second chance to put a person to death, Alabama used nitrogen suffocation, an experimental method condemned as torture by international experts, to execute Mr. Smith and Mr. Miller in 2024.

• Tags:

• Executions