About a dozen clergy and conservative politicians pleaded with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to postpone an upcoming execution after another inmate’s lethal injection was botched in May.
“Tony Carruthers … spent 90 agonizing minutes bleeding and in excruciating pain in a failed attempt to take his life before Gov. Lee stopped his execution. Mr. Carruthers then returned to his cell alive but seriously wounded and deeply traumatized,” said Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, during a July 16 news conference in Nashville.
The event was organized after Lee announced nothing is wrong with the state’s capital punishment protocols and the execution of Darrell Hines will proceed as scheduled on Aug. 13.
“I think, as we have observed, everything about the protocol of the death penalty in the state was carried out appropriately,” Lee said. “In that situation, the Department of Correction did exactly what they were supposed to.”
Carruthers’ execution failed when the medical team overseeing the procedure were unable to insert a backup IV in the prisoner’s arm or chest as required by protocol and despite a physician’s repeated attempts to do so.
Stacy Rector
“As the community’s conscience, we are compelled to express our profound disappointment and concern about the governor’s dismissive remarks regarding the horror that was inflicted on Tony Carruthers, remarks that are also dismissive of the trauma that this ordeal inflicted on the Tennessee Department of Corrections own staff, the victims’ families, Mr. Carruthers’ family, his attorney and every witness to that brutal spectacle,” Rector said.
Carruthers’ case history also should be considered, she explained. “He was convicted and sentenced to death 30 years ago in Shelby County without any physical evidence tying him to the crime, he was forced to represent himself at his capital trial and his execution moved forward despite the state’s refusal to test untested fingerprint and DNA evidence from the crime scene that does not belong to Mr. Carruthers.”
A moratorium also is needed to give a pending lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol time to reach a resolution, Rector added. The litigation was filed by Hines and eight other Death Row inmates.
“Gov. Lee’s response represents a moral failure that is not reflective of the people of our state, so today we join with thousands of other Tennesseans, including a group of Tennessee Republican state senators and a republican state representative, to call on Gov. Lee to reconsider his remarks and to stop the execution of Darrell Hines,” Rector said.
State GOP senators sent a letter to Lee in June calling for “full transparency and accountability” from the Department of Corrections in the aftermath of Carruthers’ failed execution.
Timothy Holton
Led by state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, the legislators also said they avoid a repeat of a botched execution in 2022 that resulted in a years-long moratorium on executions.
United Methodist Pastor Timothy Holton, the surviving family member of four homicide victims, said a moratorium is necessary to assure Tennesseans they will not see another “bloody, excruciatingly painful experience” like one Carruthers’ endured.
“Governor, to act as if what happened that day was business as usual dismisses the harm that was done to everyone who was involved. This is not just about one man on Tennessee’s Death Row. This is about corrections officers and personnel who are asked to carry out these executions, it’s about the victims’ families and it’s about every Tennessean who expects our government to respond with honesty and accountability.”
Kelli X, pastor of a Disciples of Christ congregation in Madison, used the moment to make a plea for abolishing the death penalty.
“I desire for my brothers and sisters the same dignity, mercy and humanity I would want for myself. I believe that every person is created in the image of God and that no one is beyond the reach of God’s redeeming love, and that is why I believe there are more humane ways to hold people accountable for the devastating harm they have caused.”
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Tennessee botches execution of prisoner who claims innocence