Gov. Bill Lee Grants Tony Carruthers One-Year Reprieve After Backup IV Line Fails

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee granted Tony Von Carruthers a one-year reprieve after officials called off his planned lethal injection execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville because medical personnel could not establish a required backup IV line.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said medical personnel quickly established a primary IV line but “could not find another suitable vein” for the backup line required by the state’s lethal injection protocol.

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The department added that the team attempted to insert a central line pursuant to the protocol, but “the procedure was unsuccessful,” and “The execution was then called off.”

Carruthers, 57, was scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. May 21, and the reprieve was issued after the backup IV line effort failed and the execution was stopped.

Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, said she saw Carruthers “wincing and groaning” while officials attempted to find a vein, calling the process “horrible” to watch.

DeLiberato also described the central-line attempt as “stabbed” multiple times and said it was “torture,” while the Tennessee Department of Correction said the team followed protocol but could not establish the backup access.

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The Commercial Appeal reported that media witnesses were allowed in the witness room as IV lines were being set, but “No media witnesses saw Carruthers for the duration of the attempts to insert a line.”

In the viewing room, a man could be heard asking, “What’s the pain like?” and asking for a 1-10 rating, and DeLiberato later told reporters those groans were from Carruthers during the central line attempt.

Carruthers was convicted of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker, and the failed execution attempt renewed scrutiny over lethal injection procedures when teams struggle to establish IV access.

The reprieve runs for one year, and Gov. Lee’s statement said he was granting “a temporary reprieve from execution for one year,” after the state’s team could not set the backup IV line required by protocol.

Attorneys for Carruthers have repeatedly petitioned courts to stop his execution and test DNA and fingerprint evidence from the scene of the crime, and DeLiberato said she was “going to have a chance to prove what we've been saying and what Tony has been saying for 30 years.”

The ACLU and other advocates tied the pause to demands for forensic testing, with DeLiberato saying the state “cannot continue torturing a man while refusing to answer serious questions about his innocence,” as the case moves forward after the execution was called off.