Crime
Death Row Inmate in Tennessee Left in ‘Agony’ Following Botched Execution Via Lethal Injection
Tennessee officials were forced to call off the execution of Tony Carruthers when Department of Correction medical staff were unable to find a vein in order to administer the lethal injection.
Carruthers’ attorneys say the botched attempt caused the death row inmate “absolute agony,” according to Action News 5.
According to USA Today, the Department of Correction said that the execution team “quickly” established a primary IV line. But they couldn’t find a vein for a backup line, which is required by state protocol, despite repeatedly “stabbing” Carruthers’ arms, shoulders, foot, jugular and chest, according to the American Civil Liberty Union’s Maria DeLiberato, who represents the 57-year-old prisoner.
“They subjected him to over an hour and a half of torture,” adds Amy Harwell, a federal public defender in Tennessee.
Carruthers, who has maintained his innocence, was convicted in the 1994 murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Taylor. Their bodies were found buried in a Memphis cemetery.
No physical evidence tied Carruthers to the killings, and he was convicted primarily on testimony by people — including a self-confessed paid police informant — who claimed they’d heard him discuss the crime.
At his 1996 trial, Carruthers represented himself, believing his lawyers were incompetent. His defense attorneys allege they endured personal attacks and abuse from him, though others say he had “paranoia and delusions,” according to The Guardian.
The ACLU countered in a recent clemency petition that he was “plainly neither competent to stand trial nor competent to defend himself,” per The New York Times.
The failed execution prompted Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to grant Carruthers a one-year reprieve.
More than 7 percent of the more than 1,000 lethal injections that have taken place in the U.S. between 1982 and 2010 have been botched, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, as reported by USA Today.
