TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on May 21, 2026

Tony Carruthers' execution was halted at the last minute after the contracted doctor failed to establish a viable IV line for the lethal injection. Unable to find a suitable vein, the doctor attempted to place a central line as required by protocol, but was not qualified to do so — and the attempt failed. An emergency filing was made to the Tennessee Supreme Court, after which Gov. Bill Lee issued a one-year reprieve. According to the Nashville Banner, Carruthers' ACLU attorney called it a "botched execution," saying her client had been "tortured" during the failed attempts to find a vein. Read more in a press release from the Middle Tennessee Federal Public Defender's Office about the failed execution. In a press release issued on Tuesday, the defender's office stated that the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) was refusing to confirm that they would not use expired lethal injection drugs to execute Carruthers. Tennessee’s 2025 Lethal Injection Protocol does not expressly forbid the state from using expired drugs in an execution. Rather, it imposes a system of regular and pre-execution inventories and requires appropriate disposal only if expired drugs are revealed during one such inventory. The Banner and The Associated Press report on the developments.