TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Apr 13, 2026

Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed a motion to test DNA evidence they say was not previously examined in the case of Tony Carruthers, a Shelby County man scheduled to be executed next month, the Commercial Appeal reports. Carruthers, who has been on death row since his 1996 conviction in the killings of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker, was largely tied to the crime through witness statements rather than physical evidence, according to court records. The ACLU said untested DNA evidence does not match Carruthers and has not been compared to another potential suspect. The organization is urging testing before the execution, calling it an "irreversible punishment." Carruthers, who represented himself at trial amid documented mental health concerns, also has a separate competency claim pending, while a prior motion to test fingerprints from the crime scene remains unresolved.