Inmates Gets 1-Year Stay After Execution Attempt Fails

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has granted a one-year stay of execution for Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994, after difficulties establishing an intravenous line Thursday forced officials to call off his lethal injection. Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers, said she saw him "wincing and groaning" while officials attempted to find a vein, calling it "horrible" to watch, the AP reports.

• In a written statement, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said medical personnel had quickly established a primary IV line but were unable to find a suitable vein for a backup line as required by the state's execution protocol. Efforts to insert a central line also failed, and officials called off the execution.

• Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project, said personnel spent an hour and 20 minutes trying to insert an IV line, the Tennessean reports. She said they tried his right side, left side, foot, jugular, chest, and shoulder.
• States have repeatedly had to call off executions because of such challenges. In Idaho in 2024, medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV line to execute Thomas Creech, one of the nation's longest-serving death row inmates, before calling it off; Idaho Gov. Brad Little subsequently signed a law making firing squad the state's primary method of execution.
• In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022—the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.

• Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker. He was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.
• There was no physical evidence tying Carruthers to the killings, and he was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from people who claimed to have heard him confess to or discuss the crimes.
• Carruthers' attorneys have tried to show that he is incompetent to be executed. They claim in court filings that Carruthers believes the government is bluffing about executing him in order to coerce him into accepting a plea deal that exists only in his mind. That way, Carruthers believes, the government can avoid paying him what he thinks are millions of dollars it owes him. He is convinced that his own attorneys are part of a conspiracy against him and refuses to even speak with them, according to court filings.