130,000 People Urge Clemency for Tony Carruthers in Advance of Tennessee’s Planned Execution

Absent court action, Tony Carruthers is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Tennessee on May 21, 2026, despite untest­ed DNA evi­dence, an inno­cence claim, and seri­ous men­tal ill­ness con­cerns. On May 18, faith lead­ers, civ­il rights advo­cates and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers marched to the state capi­tol to urge Governor Bill Lee to grant Mr. Carruthers clemen­cy or stay his exe­cu­tion to allow addi­tion­al DNA test­ing, deliv­er­ing a peti­tion with over 130,000 sig­na­tures. Gov. Lee announced on May 19 that he has no plans to inter­vene and stop the exe­cu­tion. Mr. Carruthers’ case has drawn nation­al atten­tion as his sched­uled exe­cu­tion date nears, includ­ing from celebri­ty Kim Kardashian, who urged her 345 mil­lion Instagram fol­low­ers to call Gov. Lee’s office to press for the DNA test­ing, and from Demetrius Minor, the Executive Director of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. 

Convicted and sen­tenced to death for his alleged involve­ment in the kid­nap­ping and mur­ders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker in 1994, Mr. Carruthers has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence, and no foren­sic evi­dence has ever con­nect­ed him to the crime. At his tri­al, pros­e­cu­tors relied almost entire­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a jail­house infor­mant who was paid for his tes­ti­mo­ny. DNA col­lect­ed from the crime scene has nev­er been com­pared to anoth­er sus­pect in the case. In April, coun­sel for Mr. Carruthers asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to order DNA test­ing that they argue could prove his inno­cence; the request was denied on May 20. 

Mr. Carruthers was also forced to rep­re­sent him­self at his tri­al after the judge in his case became frus­trat­ed with his repeat­ed dis­missal of court-appoint­ed coun­sel. In fil­ings by Mr. Carruthers’ cur­rent attor­neys from the Tennessee Federal Public Defender’s Office they attribute his actions at tri­al ​“to his long­stand­ing and well-doc­u­ment­ed men­tal ill­ness,” includ­ing a ​“per­va­sive and all-con­sum­ing obses­sion that a cabal of cor­rupt judges, pros­e­cu­tors, and defense attor­neys have con­spired to secure his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence.” At tri­al, Mr. Carruthers did not ask to rep­re­sent him­self and repeat­ed­ly request­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tion after the judge refused to appoint new coun­sel. According to the ACLU, as a result, Mr. Carruthers’ tri­al ​“was so filled with errors due to his forced self-rep­re­sen­ta­tion that on appeal the court found that his co-defen­dant deserved a new tri­al.” On May 7, Tennessee’s Supreme Court reject­ed a chal­lenge to his exe­cu­tion based on U.S. Supreme Court cas­es Ford v. Wainwright (1986) and Panetti v. Quarterman (2007), which held that the Eighth Amendment pro­hibits the exe­cu­tion of a per­son who can­not ratio­nal­ly under­stand the rea­son for their exe­cu­tion. His attor­neys appealed the denial to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to accept the case on May 19. If exe­cut­ed, Mr. Carruthers will be the first Tennessee defen­dant to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al and receive the death penal­ty in over 100 years.