NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WMC) – The defense attorneys who witnessed Tony Carruthers’ failed execution will ask Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday to pause all executions until litigation on lethal injection concludes.
Carruthers was convicted in 1996 of a gruesome triple murder and kidnapping in South Memphis. He was set to be executed on Thursday, May 21, but the execution was canceled after a failed lethal injection.
“Tortured, botched execution. I mean, there’s no question about it,” said ACLU’s Maria DeLiberato, who is defending Carruthers alongside federal public defender Amy Harwell.
According to the ACLU and FPD, the press conference will take place on Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Federal Defender for the Middle Tennessee District Office in the Henry Martin Library in Nashville.
According to DeLiberato and Harwell, in April 2022, Governor Lee ordered an investigation into problems with Tennessee’s former lethal injection protocol…