Tony Carruthers compared the failed execution to being stabbed repeatedly, and the ACLU attorney who was there called what happened next “torture”

The execution of Tennessee death row inmate Tony Carruthers was halted on May 21 at 10:00 AM after medical staff spent over an hour failing to secure a vein for lethal injection. As first reported by UNILAD, the failed procedure prompted Governor Bill Lee to issue a one-year reprieve for Carruthers, who has maintained his innocence for three decades. The decision came after witnesses and legal advocates publicly condemned what they described as a deeply troubling breakdown of state protocol.

Medical personnel attempted to establish IV access across multiple sites, including Carruthers’ right side, left side, foot, jugular, chest, and shoulder. When those efforts failed, the team moved to insert a central line, a large-bore IV that goes into a major vein in the chest, neck, or arm. That procedure was also unsuccessful. The Department of Corrections confirmed in a statement provided outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution that the execution was called off after staff could not find another suitable vein.

Carruthers described the repeated needle attempts as feeling like being stabbed. It is understood that the local anesthetic Lidocaine had not taken full effect before the team began, which contributed to the pain he experienced throughout the procedure.

Advocates called the prolonged ordeal “barbaric” and said it amounted to torture

Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, witnessed the full hour and 20 minutes of attempts and described what she saw as torture. Casey Stubbs, director of the same project, called the state’s decision to press forward despite repeated failure “barbaric,” arguing the execution had turned unjust the moment DNA testing was denied.

Amid broader scrutiny of how courts handle contested evidence, a Texas woman was recently sentenced in a separate case where forensic findings played a central role in sentencing. Pro bono counsel Melanie Verdecia argued the state was “torturing a man who maintains his innocence in the name of justice,” adding that “this is not how our system is supposed to work.”

This is not an isolated occurrence. Research from Professor Austin Sarat at Amherst College indicates that between 1890 and 2010, roughly 3 percent of all U.S. executions were botched, with lethal injection carrying the highest failure rate of any method at 7.2 percent. States including Indiana and Arizona have seen similar breakdowns, with execution teams spending hours attempting to establish IV lines before resorting to invasive central line procedures.

Carruthers’ death sentence stems from a 1994 triple murder conviction. The bodies of Delois Anderson, Marcellos Anderson, and Frederick Tucker were found buried beneath a coffin at the Memphis Rose Cemetery. The prosecution relied heavily on testimony from inmates and drug dealers, with limited physical evidence tying Carruthers to the crime. His legal team has long pushed for DNA testing they believe could exonerate him, and that request has consistently been denied. The Jan. 6 pardoned rioter conviction case earlier this year drew similar attention to the boundaries of pardon power and the handling of criminal evidence at the federal level.

DeLiberato expressed relief at the reprieve, saying she could not wait to tell Carruthers’ family that there was finally a chance to prove what he and his legal team had been saying for 30 years. Governor Lee’s one-year reprieve gives advocates a window to continue pursuing the DNA testing they say could change the outcome of the case.