In Nashville, Tennessee, officials called off Thursday’s scheduled lethal injection of Tony Carruthers after an attempted intravenous line placement ran into difficulties for more than an hour, leaving execution staff unable to complete the state’s protocol. Gov. Bill Lee announced soon afterward that Tennessee would not try again for at least a year.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections said medical personnel quickly established a primary IV line for Carruthers, but were unable to find a suitable vein for a backup line as required by Tennessee’s execution protocol. The department said efforts to insert a central line also failed, and officials ultimately called off the execution.
Lee’s reprieve came while attorneys and media representatives were waiting in separate witness areas designed to limit what can be seen during the IV preparation. Under the state’s execution policies, blinds between the witness room and the execution chamber remain closed until the IV insertion team has left, and media witnesses sat in a dark room for more than an hour, with the blinds never raised.
Maria DeLiberato, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Carruthers, said she was in the execution chamber and that she watched officials attempt to find a vein. DeLiberato told reporters afterward that she saw him “wincing and groaning” during the efforts, and she called it “horrible” to watch as the procedure continued without success.
DeLiberato said that after officials established an IV line in Carruthers’ right arm, medical personnel tried his other arm, his left hand and his left foot before attempting to place a central line. She also described seeing “a lot of blood” as a doctor began pushing a needle, adding that a central line attempt failed and that the medical team later accessed a vein in Carruthers’ right shoulder before a phone call to the warden led to the announcement that the execution was off.
The ACLU and other media organizations have argued for broader access to what happens during execution procedures. The Associated Press said a state rule contested by news organizations limited media witnesses from observing the IV insertion, and DeLiberato said she began crying after the governor’s office issued the reprieve as reporters were being addressed.
Officials and advocates pointed to a recurring issue with lethal injection procedures across the country. Since 2009, the Death Penalty Information Center said six other prisoners in three states—Alabama, Idaho and Ohio—have had executions halted because of difficulties establishing an IV.
In Idaho in 2024, the Death Penalty Information Center said medical team members tried eight times to establish a line to execute Thomas Creech before calling off the effort, and Idaho Gov. Brad Little later signed a law making a firing squad the state’s primary execution method. In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022, and it was the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to carry out executions due to problems with IV lines, according to the report.
The Death Penalty Information Center said Carruthers’ case raised concerns including mental illness, representation, innocence and access to DNA testing. The group said Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Carruthers also added “an additional issue surrounding the qualifications of the people tasked with executing prisoners,” in an emailed statement.
Carruthers, 57, was convicted of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker, authorities said. The state said Marcellos Anderson was a drug dealer and that Carruthers was trying to take over an illegal trade in their Memphis neighborhood, and it said Carruthers was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.
The AP report said prosecutors said there was no physical evidence tying Carruthers to the killings and that the case was based primarily on testimony from people who claimed they had heard him confess 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, and it also said Carruthers’ attorneys have argued he has mental health issues that render him incompetent to be executed.
Executions in the U.S. have risen in recent years. The Death Penalty Information Center said the number of executions increased from 25 in 2024 to 47 last year, driven by a sharp increase in Florida, which conducted 19 executions in 2025 up from one the previous year. The report said four states have carried out 14 executions so far this year, including one Thursday evening in Florida, and that 10 more are scheduled.
Tennessee had its last execution in December before starting a new round last year after a three-year pause tied to findings that the state was not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency. An independent review later found none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been fully tested, and the state attorney general’s office 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.