Entries tagged with “Tony Carruthers”

Upcoming Executions

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Jul 23, 2026

Death-Sentenced Prisoner Asks Tennessee Supreme Court to Conditionally Stay Execution as State Refuses to Disclose Whether it Will Use Same Physician from Botched May Execution

On July 20, 2026, attor­neys for death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Darrell Hines, in a new fil­ing, asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to con­di­tion­al­ly stay Mr. Hines’ August 13 exe­cu­tion date because the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) has refused to iden­ti­fy whether it will use the same physi­cian involved in the state’s failed exe­cu­tion attempt of Tony Carruthers. Pointing to an extreme risk of pain and suf­fer­ing, as evi­denced by Mr. Carruthers’ botched execution,…

Upcoming Executions

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Jul 13, 2026

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee Says Lethal Injection Executions Will Proceed as Scheduled, Despite Recent Botch and Mounting Concerns

On July 7, 2026, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told mem­bers of the media that the state’s sched­uled exe­cu­tions will pro­ceed with­out any changes to the lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, despite the state’s failed attempt to exe­cute Tony Carruthers in May. Gov. Lee stat­ed that the exe­cu­tion team fol­lowed the prop­er pro­to­col dur­ing the attempt­ed exe­cu­tion and that the prob­lem was with locat­ing a suit­able vein for an IV line, rather than with the pro­to­col itself.​“I think, as we…

Botched Executions

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Jul 07, 2026

Tennessee Republican State Senators Call on Governor Lee to Review the ​“Incompetent Administration” Leading to the Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers

In a let­ter dat­ed June 25, 2026, a group of nine Tennessee Republican sen­a­tors called on Governor Bill Lee to com­mis­sion an inde­pen­dent review of the failed exe­cu­tion of Tony Carruthers, to order the cor­rec­tion of​“every defi­cien­cy” found in this review, and to make infor­ma­tion about the exe­cu­tion team pub­licly avail­able​“so that the Department \[of Corrections’\] readi­ness can be inde­pen­dent­ly ver­i­fied.” While the sen­a­tors main­tain their sup­port for the…

Executions

Botched Executions

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Jun 22, 2026

States Continue to Push for Execution Secrecy Amid Legal Challenges

For the past 15 years, as state after state has passed exe­cu­tion secre­cy laws, the pub­lic has faced more ques­tions than answers about how elect­ed offi­cials use their tax­pay­er dol­lars for the most seri­ous pun­ish­ment. Every active death penal­ty state now has a law shield­ing key infor­ma­tion about exe­cu­tions, such as the source of lethal injec­tion drugs, the iden­ti­ties of exe­cu­tion team mem­bers, and whether those indi­vid­u­als have ade­quate train­ing. In 2026, as…

Botched Executions

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May 26, 2026

Tennessee’s Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers Raises Questions About Medical Qualifications Among Concerns with Innocence and Due Process

Tennessee​’s attempt to exe­cute Tony Carruthers on May 21, 2026, failed after exe­cu­tion team mem­bers could not estab­lish an intra­venous line after more than an hour of attempts, prompt­ing Governor Bill Lee to grant a one-year reprieve. In a writ­ten state­ment, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said med­ical per­son­nel had quick­ly estab­lished a pri­ma­ry IV line but were unable to estab­lish a back­up line as required by the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. Efforts to…

May 20, 2026

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…

Apr 14, 2026

Tennessee Scheduled to Execute Tony Carruthers Despite Untested DNA Evidence, Innocence Concerns, and Mental Illness

With weeks left before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on May 21, 2026, coun­sel for Tennessee death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Tony Carruthers has asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to order DNA test­ing that they argue could prove their client’s inno­cence. On April 9, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed an emer­gency motion seek­ing DNA test­ing​“on spe­cif­ic pieces of pro­ba­tive phys­i­cal evi­dence, most of which has nev­er been test­ed, and which will like­ly point to…