Tennessee halts – Tennessee halted the lethal injection attempt of death row inmate Tony Carruthers on Thursday after execution personnel failed for more than an hour to establish a suitable intravenous line for a backup dose. Gov. Bill Lee said the state would not try again fo
For more than an hour, execution personnel in Tennessee tried to get a lethal injection protocol back on track. They established a primary IV line quickly. according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. but they could not find a suitable vein for the backup line required under the state’s own execution rules. The attempt was called off, Gov. Bill Lee announced soon afterward, and the state said it would not try again for at least a year.
The details. released through state statements and testimony from the attorney who was present. landed with the force of a car door slamming shut: a medical team tried and failed. then tried again. and then failed again—this time with the kind of escalation that forces an execution to stop before drugs ever reach the body.
In a written statement. the Tennessee Department of Corrections said medical personnel quickly established a primary IV line. but were unable to find a suitable vein for a backup line as required by the state’s execution protocol. Efforts to insert a central line also failed, and officials called off the execution.
Maria DeLiberato. an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Carruthers. said she saw him “wincing and groaning” while officials attempted to find a vein. calling it “horrible” to watch. After the governor’s office issued the reprieve, DeLiberato began crying as she spoke to reporters. “That’s amazing!” she said. “I’m so grateful!”.
The stoppage on Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., unfolded under a watchful system that limits what witnesses can see. Under Tennessee’s execution policies. blinds between the witness room and the execution chamber are kept closed until the IV insertion team has left. On Thursday, media witnesses sat in a dark room for over an hour, but the blinds were never raised.
Witnesses heard what sounded like groans through a crack beneath a door connecting the two rooms. DeLiberato, who was in the execution chamber, said medical personnel first established an IV line in Carruthers’ right arm. Then they tried to use his other arm. his left hand and his left foot before trying to establish a central line. She said Carruthers groaned as a doctor started pushing a needle in. and she saw two or three puncture wounds: “There was a lot of blood.”.
DeLiberato said the medical team, unable to establish a central line, accessed a vein in Carruthers’ right shoulder before the warden received a phone call and announced the execution was off.
The Associated Press is part of a group of media organizations fighting for witnesses to be allowed to see more of the execution process, including the IV insertion—an effort that comes into sharper relief when an execution attempt is derailed by what witnesses cannot directly verify.
Carruthers, 57, was convicted in the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker. Authorities said Marcellos Anderson was a drug dealer and that Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal trade in their Memphis neighborhood. Carruthers was found guilty after a trial in which he was forced to represent himself following repeated complaints about court-appointed attorneys and threats to harm several of them.
There was no physical evidence tying Carruthers to the killings. He was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from people who claimed they had heard him confess to or discuss the crimes. The ACLU said it would continue to push for DNA testing on evidence in the case. saying it should have been done long ago.
Carruthers’ attorneys also argued that he has mental health issues that render him incompetent to be executed.
The incident in Tennessee is not an isolated one. Since 2009. six other prisoners in three states—Alabama. Idaho and Ohio—have had executions halted because of difficulties establishing an IV. according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In Idaho in 2024. medical team members tried eight times to establish a line to execute Thomas Creech. one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates. before calling it off. Idaho Gov. Brad Little later signed a law making firing squad the state’s primary method of execution.
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022. It was the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.
The Death Penalty Information Center said Carruthers’ case raised serious concerns about “mental illness. representation. innocence. and access to DNA testing. ” and that Tennessee’s failed attempt today presents an additional issue surrounding the qualifications of the people tasked with executing prisoners.
The stakes for Tennessee reach beyond Thursday’s stoppage. Executions surged last year in the United States. climbing from 25 in 2024 to 47 last year. driven by a sharp increase in Florida. Florida carried out 19 executions in 2025, up from one in the previous year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So far this year, four states have executed 13 people, and 11 other executions are scheduled, including one Thursday evening in Florida.
Tennessee. which carried out its last execution in December. began a new round of executions last year after a three-year pause following the discovery that the state was not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency. An independent review later found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been fully tested. The state attorney general’s office also conceded in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs incorrectly testified under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.
By Thursday night. the immediate question for Tennessee was clear: a state protocol designed for an execution attempt has now met a hard biological boundary. Gov. Bill Lee said Tennessee would not try again for at least a year. leaving the death penalty’s machinery in the state paused—once more—by a failure to find the right vein.
Tony Carruthers Tennessee lethal injection Bill Lee Department of Corrections ACLU IV line Death Penalty Information Center capital punishment