Botched Tennessee Execution Sparks Death Row Debate

Botched execution sparks death row debate

For over an hour, Tony Carruthers lay strapped to an execution gurney in Tennessee's death chamber as his executioners struggled to find a vein. They tried his arms, shoulders, feet, chest and the jugular vein in his neck, according to…

Botched Tenn. execution sparks death row debate

For over an hour, Tony Carruthers lay strapped to an execution gurney in Tennessee's death chamber as his executioners struggled to find a vein. They tried his arms, shoulders, feet, chest and the jugular vein in his neck, according to…

Botched Tennessee execution sparks death row debate

For over an hour, Tony Carruthers lay strapped to an execution gurney in Tennessee's death chamber as his executioners struggled to find a vein. They tried his arms, shoulders, feet, chest and the jugular vein in his neck, according to…

Tennessee court denies independent exam after Tony Carruthers’ failed execution

After the state of Tennessee failed in its attempt to execute Tony Carruthers last month, defense attorneys were in a mad dash to preserve evidence. Tennessee Department of Correction staff and medical contractors had tried to establish an IV into Carruthers’ arms — and, when that failed, a doctor tried twice to cut into his chest and then once into his shoulder before the execution was called off. Carruthers’ legal team asked the Davidson Count…

Op-Ed: Execution Attempt Succeeded Only in 'Agony'

Maria DeLiberato went to Tennessee's Riverbend prison in May expecting to see her longtime client, Tony Carruthers, put to death. Instead, she says she watched the state botch the job in real time. In a New York Times opinion piece, the veteran capital defense lawyer first lays out her case...

Capital Defender’s Eyewitness Account of Tennessee’s Botched Execution of Her Client

In a June 1, 2026, op-ed in *The New York Times*, Maria DeLiberato, senior coun­sel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Capital Punishment Project, offers a first-per­son account of the May 21 attempt by Tennessee to exe­cute her client, Tony Carruthers — and the hour of suf­fer­ing she wit­nessed before Governor Bill Lee called off his execution. Ms. DeLiberato, who joined Mr. Carruthers’ legal team just two months before his sched­ule…