NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Gov. Bill Lee issued a reprieve Thursday after Tennessee halted the planned execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers amid reported problems establishing an IV line for the lethal injection.
Amy Harwell, First Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee, told NewsChannel 5 that Lee had issued the reprieve, officially delaying the execution.
Earlier Thursday, Carruthers’ attorneys said officials struggled for about an hour to find a vein before the execution was stopped.
Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers who was present for the planned execution, told The Associated Press she watched officials attempt to establish IV access for roughly an hour before the execution was halted.
DeLiberato said Carruthers was “wincing and groaning” during the process and described it as “horrible” to witness.
AP said an email seeking comment from the Tennessee Department of Correction was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Harwell told NewsChannel 5 the execution process had been paused.
“Everything is stopped ‘for now,’” Harwell said in a text message. “They will not tell us how long that means.”
Current Tennessee Department of Correction execution procedures adopted in 2025 call for execution staff to insert both a primary IV catheter and a backup IV catheter. The protocol states the primary IV is used to administer the lethal injection chemicals, while the backup catheter is reserved in case the first IV fails. The protocol also states that any IV line failure must immediately be reported to the commissioner.
The 2025 protocol further states: “If necessary, the Physician will insert a central line.” A central line, or central venous catheter, is a long tube inserted into a large vein in the chest, neck or groin that leads directly to a large vein near the heart.
While the current protocol is less detailed about how execution staff should respond to IV access problems, previous TDOC protocols show the department has prepared for these situations in the past.
Carruthers, 57, was scheduled to be executed Thursday at 10 a.m. for the 1994 kidnappings and killings of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker in Memphis.
The pause comes amid ongoing scrutiny surrounding Tennessee’s lethal injection procedures. In recent days, Carruthers’ attorneys questioned whether the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) could use expired execution drugs, citing concerns about the state’s lethal injection protocol and TDOC’s refusal to explicitly confirm the drugs were not expired.
Tennessee executions were halted for nearly three years beginning in 2022 after Gov. Bill Lee stopped the execution of Oscar Smith roughly an hour before it was scheduled to begin because required testing had not been completed on lethal injection drugs.
An independent review later found Tennessee had not fully tested drugs prepared for several executions dating back to 2018.
Carruthers’ attorneys had also unsuccessfully sought DNA and fingerprint testing in the case and argued he was mentally incompetent to be executed. Courts denied those requests ahead of Thursday’s scheduled execution.
Carruthers was convicted in the 1994 killings largely on testimony from witnesses who claimed he confessed to the crimes. Court records show there was no physical evidence directly tying him to the murders.
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