Tennessee stops execution after failing to find inmate's vein for lethal drugs, attorney says
Medical staff found no suitable backup vein, and the state will wait at least a year before trying again, Gov. Bill Lee said.
- On Thursday, Tennessee officials halted the execution of Tony Carruthers after the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to establish an intravenous line; repeated attempts by medics to secure access for lethal-injection drugs were unsuccessful.
- Before the scheduled procedure, attorneys for Carruthers expressed concerns regarding potential use of expired drugs, with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee reporting that TDOC refused to provide explicit assurances.
- Tennessee resumed executions last year, ending a three-year pause caused by drug testing failures, though an independent review later found that drugs used on seven inmates in 2018 had been fully tested.
- Last month, legal counsel filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing to examine unmatched fingerprints and other evidence against an alternate suspect, advancing ongoing efforts by attorneys for Carruthers ahead of the scheduled execution.
- Melanie Verdecia, counsel for Carruthers with the ACLU, stated, "This is not how our system is supposed to work," while NBC News reported that Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Corrections received comment requests the attorney general's office declined.
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Tennessee halts Tony Carruthers execution after staff unable to find vein for lethal injection – The Tennessee Tribune
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee halted the execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers on Thursday after the person responsible for administering the lethal injection was unable to find a vein, stalling the execution indefinitely, according to a witness to the procedure. Carruthers had been scheduled to die Thursday morning at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The execution was initially delayed while attorneys awaited a decisi…
Questions raised about the doctor who was overseeing Tony Carruthers’ execution
Questions are mounting about the doctor overseeing Tony Carruthers’ halted execution after attorneys alleged he lacked the qualifications to perform the invasive IV procedures attempted during the process.
The execution of a 57-year-old man convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in the US state of Tennessee was postponed on Thursday. The killer, Tony Carruthers, was already bedridden, but the execution was postponed for at least a year after it took more than an hour to find a suitable vein to insert a tube to administer the lethal drug.
Tennessee calls off botched execution attempt as witness saw inmate ‘wincing and groaning’
Tennessee officials on Thursday called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994, after his executioners tried and failed for over an hour to establish an intravenous line. Gov. Bill Lee announced soon afterward that the state would not try again for at least a year.
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