Today, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee granted a one-year reprieve after halting the execution of Tony Carruthers. Carruthers, 57, was scheduled to be executed at 10am for a 1994 murder and kidnapping in Memphis, Tennessee. Lee halted the planned execution of Carruthers amid reported problems establishing IV access for the lethal injection.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said execution staff were unable to establish the backup IV line required under the state’s lethal injection protocol. “Medical personnel quickly established a primary IV line; however, the team was unable to immediately establish a backup line pursuant to the lethal injection execution protocol. The team continued to follow the protocol, but could not find another suitable vein. The team attempted to insert a central line pursuant to the protocol, but the procedure was unsuccessful. The execution was then called off.” TDOC said in a statement.
Earlier today, Carruthers’ attorneys said officials struggled for about an hour to find a vein before the execution was halted. Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s Capital Punishment Project who was present for the planned execution, told The Associated Press she watched officials spend roughly an hour attempting to establish IV access before the execution was halted.
DeLiberato said Carruthers was “wincing and groaning” during the process and described it as “horrible” to witness. “Permitting Tony Carruthers’s execution to move forward without ordering DNA testing was already a profound injustice,” DeLiberato said in the statement. “Today, that injustice became outright barbaric after Mr. Carruthers was subject to a botched execution attempt.”
Carruthers has maintained his innocence for more than 30 years and there has been no DNA evidence linking him to the crime. DeLiberato said the organization would continue pushing for forensic testing in the case, arguing Tennessee “cannot continue torturing a man while refusing to answer serious questions about his innocence.” The ACLU also said more than 130,000 people signed petitions supporting Carruthers and calling for additional testing.
“Today’s botched execution attempt of Tony Carruthers is horrifying but not surprising,” Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said in a statement. “TADP has sounded the alarm for years about the serious problems with lethal injection and urged our state toward greater transparency so these problems can be addressed.”
Felony Murder Elimination Project wishes to share a message from the Faith Leaders of Color Coalition concerning today’s barbaric miscarriage of justice in Tennessee.
This is how the death penalty system really works; unprofessional, unreliable and inconsistent, even for those seeking justice through this abhorrent, flawed practice. When is enough, enough?
It is long past time to abolish the death penalty in the United States of America.
