A Tennessee death row inmate tied to three murders from 1994 received a last-minute stay on Thursday after the execution team could not find a vein to deliver the lethal injection.
Tony Carruthers had been sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in the decades-old killings, and his execution was scheduled for May 21 at 10am.
But when the process was about to begin, officials were unable to locate what they described as a “suitable vein” to proceed in compliance with state requirements, despite repeated attempts.
In a statement, the Department of Corrections said staff “quickly established a primary IV line” early on, but could not place the mandatory secondary line required under Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) protocol.
Attempts were made on multiple areas, including his right and left sides, as well as through his foot, jugular, chest, and shoulder.
After failing to access a peripheral vein, the team opted to attempt a central line—an IV placed into a larger vein in the chest, neck, or arm, with the tip positioned near the heart.
That effort also failed. Carruthers was said to be in severe pain during the attempts, which he compared to feeling like being “stabbed.”
“The team continued to follow the protocol, but could not find another suitable vein. The team attempted to insert a central line pursuant to the protocol, but the procedure was unsuccessful,” the statement, provided to reporters outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, says. “The execution was then called off.”
Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Capital Punishment Project, said the efforts to establish IV access continued for roughly an hour and 20 minutes before the execution was halted.
She described what happened—including Carruthers being “stabbed” two or three times while staff tried to set the line—as “torture.”
It was also reported that Lidocaine, a local anesthetic used to numb the area, may not have fully taken effect before the attempts began, contributing to the intensity of his pain.
Although the execution was ultimately stopped, advocates argued that the ordeal had already caused serious harm.
Casey Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, condemned the repeated IV attempts as “barbaric,” according to the Commercial Appeal.
“Permitting Tony Carruthers’ execution without ordering DNA testing was a grave injustice,” Stubbs said in a statement. “This injustice turned barbaric when Tennessee’s efforts to set an IV line for the lethal drugs failed and the executioners continued to press forward anyway with the botched execution.”
Melanie Verdecia, Carruthers’ pro bono counsel, likewise criticized the state’s actions, arguing officials were “torturing a man who maintains his innocence in the name of justice.”
“This is not how our system is supposed to work,” Verdecia said.
After the failed attempt, Republican Gov. Bill Lee issued a reprieve on Thursday, postponing Carruthers’ execution for a full year—an outcome welcomed by supporters who have long maintained he is innocent.
“I am so grateful that we are going to have a chance to prove what we’ve been saying and what Tony has been saying for 30 years, that he didn’t commit this crime,” DeLiberato said. “I cannot wait to tell his family.”
Carruthers’ death sentence stems from a 1994 case in which three bodies—Delois Anderson, Marcellos Anderson, and Frederick Tucker—were discovered buried beneath the coffin of Dorothy Daniels.
Jonathan Montgomery, the brother of Carruthers’ co-defendant James Montgomery, told authorities that James and Carruthers were responsible and reportedly led police to the burial location. He died by suicide before the case went to trial.
At trial, physical evidence directly tying Carruthers to the killings was limited, and much of the case relied on testimony from drug dealers and incarcerated witnesses who were familiar with him.
Prosecutors alleged Carruthers arranged a plan to kidnap, rob, and kill Marcellos Anderson, described as a major Memphis drug dealer. According to trial evidence, when Carruthers and the Montgomery brothers went to Delois Anderson’s home, they instructed her to contact Marcellos and tell him to come back.
Marcellos Anderson returned in response, accompanied by Frederick Tucker, a 17-year-old described as having no role in criminal activity, and the three victims were then abducted.
The victims were taken to Memphis Rose Cemetery, where Dorothy Daniels—a woman not connected to the case—was scheduled to be buried the following day. Authorities alleged Carruthers and the Montgomery brothers dug beneath the pre-prepared grave.
The three victims were strangled or shot and placed into a smaller grave beneath the one intended for Daniels; her family, unaware, later buried her above them.
A medical examiner later testified that despite the strangulation and gunshot injuries, the victims had been buried alive.
While prosecutors presented extensive witness testimony, the lack of physical evidence became a focal point of later legal challenges brought by Carruthers’ attorneys and advocates, including members of the ACLU of Tennessee.
In the weeks leading up to the scheduled execution, his lawyers again urged Gov. Lee to grant clemency—a request he denied two days before the attempted execution, on May 19.