Tennessee halts execution after officials can’t find inmate’s vein

Tennessee called off the scheduled execution of Tony Carruthers on Thursday after officials spent more than an hour trying and failing to establish an intravenous line, prompting Gov. Bill Lee to grant a one-year reprieve.

Carruthers, 57, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994. The Tennessee Department of Corrections said in a statement that medical personnel were able to establish a “primary vein” but were unsuccessful in finding a required backup line.

“The team continued to follow the protocol, but could not find another suitable vein,” the statement read. “The team attempted to insert a central line pursuant to the protocol, but the procedure was unsuccessful. The execution was then called off.”

Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers, said in a text message obtained by CBS News through the American Civil Liberties Union that officials had “tortured him.” She alleged that when staff attempted the central line, they administered lidocaine to his chest but proceeded with the puncture after Carruthers indicated he could still feel pain. According to Ms. DeLiberato, staff tried three times to establish the line in his arms and feet and also attempted to access a vein in his neck. Those allegations come from defense attorneys and have not been independently verified.

Ms. DeLiberato was addressing reporters outside the prison when the reprieve was announced and began crying. “That’s amazing!” she said. “I’m so grateful!”

According to an emergency filing with the Tennessee Supreme Court, the state’s protocols called for inserting a central line, but the filing alleged the contracted doctor lacked the qualifications or training required under protocol to perform the procedure. Carruthers’ legal team had also filed emergency motions in federal court arguing the repeated attempts constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of his constitutional rights. A judge denied that request.

Carruthers was convicted of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker. He was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them. His attorneys say there was no physical evidence tying him to the killings, and that he was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from witnesses who claimed to have heard him confess to or discuss the crimes, including a man later revealed to be a paid police informant. A co-defendant, James Montgomery, was originally sentenced to death alongside Carruthers but was later resentenced and released from prison in 2015.

The ACLU has said Carruthers would have been the first person in more than a century to be executed after representing himself at trial. His attorneys have argued he suffers from mental illness that impairs his understanding of his legal situation, though courts have rejected competency claims. Throughout his 30 years on death row, Carruthers has maintained his innocence. His defense team also sought post-conviction DNA testing of what they described as unmatched fingerprints and biological material from the crime scene — a request the state denied.

The episode is not without precedent. In Idaho in 2024, medical staff tried eight times to find a vein before calling off the execution of Thomas Creech; Idaho’s governor subsequently signed a law making the firing squad the state’s primary execution method. In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months after a lethal injection was called off in 2022 — the third time since 2018 that Alabama had been unable to proceed due to IV line problems.