Death Row execution halted by staff after medics fail to find a vein for lethal injection

A Tennessee man convicted in connection with three 1994 murders was granted a stay of execution on Thursday, after staff members were unable to find a vein to administer a lethal injection during his scheduled execution.

Tony Carruthers, had been sentenced to death for his role in the historic crimes with his execution slated to take place on May 21 at 10am.

However, at the time of the procedure that would formally end his life, medical staff were unable to locate a ‘suitable vein’ for the procedure to be carried out lawfully - despite making numerous attempts to do so.

According to a statement from The Department of Corrections, medical personnel ‘quickly established a primary IV line’ at the start of the execution, however they could not locate a suitable backup line as required by the TDOC execution protocol.

They tried his right side, left side, through his foot, jugular, chest and shoulder.

After exhausting all possibilities to find a peripheral vein, medical staff made the decision to try and insert a central line instead, a type of large bore IV which goes into a large vein in the chest, neck, or arm, with the tip ending just above or inside the heart.

This procedure was also unsuccessful, with Carruthers reportedly in significant pain with each attempt which he compared to feeling like being ‘stabbed’.

"The team continued to follow the protocol, but could not find another suitable vein. The team attempted to insert a central line pursuant to the protocol, but the procedure was unsuccessful," the statement, provided to reporters outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, says. "The execution was then called off.”

Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project went on to explain that executioners had attempted to insert an IV line into Carruthers' veins for about an hour and 20 minutes before the execution was called off.

DeLiberato then went on to describe the attempt, which included Carruthers being ‘stabbed’ two or three times to establish the line, as ‘torture.’

It is understood that the local anaesthetic used to numb the area, Lidocaine, had not taken full effect before the procedure was attempted leading to his intense pain.

The execution was then subsequently aborted - but not before the damage had been done.

Casey Stubbs, director of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project, called the repeated attempts to find an IV line ‘barbaric', as per Commercial Appeal.

"Permitting Tony Carruthers' execution without ordering DNA testing was a grave injustice," Stubbs said in a statement. "This injustice turned barbaric when Tennessee’s efforts to set an IV line for the lethal drugs failed and the executioners continued to press forward anyway with the botched execution."

Melanie Verdecia, pro bono counsel for Carruthers, also shared a similarly horrified view as she argued that the state was ‘torturing a man who maintains his innocence in the name of justice.’

"This is not how our system is supposed to work," Verdecia said.

Following the failed execution, Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, issued a reprieve on Thursday, to delay Carruthers execution not by mere weeks, or days - but for a full calendar year, much to the relief of several advocates who have long argued Carruthers is innocent.

"I am so grateful that we are going to have a chance to prove what we've been saying and what Tony has been saying for 30 years, that he didn't commit this crime," DeLiberato said. "I cannot wait to tell his family.”

Why was Tony Carruthers on Death Row?

Carruthers death sentence all stems from a 1994 crime in which the bodies of three people — Delois Anderson, Marcellos Anderson and Frederick Tucker — were found buried beneath the coffin of Dorothy Daniels.

The brother of Carruthers’ co-defendant James Montgomery, Jonathan Montgomery, alleged that both James and Tony had been the ones behind the crime and led police to the grave. He took his own life before the case ever reached trial.

During the original, there was limited physical evidence to link Carruthers to the crime, and much of the testimony alleging his guilt came from other drug dealers and inmates who knew him.

According to the evidence presented at the trial, Carruthers allegedly organised a plot to kidnap, rob and kill Marcellos Anderson a known big-time drug dealer in Memphis. When Carruthers and the Montgomery brothers arrived at Delois Anderson's house, they told her to call Marcellos Anderson to come home.

Marcellos Anderson arrived at her request accompanied by Frederick Tucker, a 17-year-old who was not involved in any criminal enterprise, and the three victims were then kidnapped.

All three were taken to the local Memphis Rose Cemetery, where innocent civilian Dorothy Daniels was due to be buried the next day, and Carruthers and the Montgomery brothers allegedly dug under the pre-constructed grave.

The three victims were strangled or shot before being dropped into a small grave beneath the one that Daniels would be buried in, with her family none the wiser when she was buried on top of the bodies.

A medical examiner would later testify at trial that the three victims, despite being strangled and shot, had been buried alive.

While the testimony provided was robust, the lack of physical evidence presented at trial would become the subject of legal challenges filed by Carruthers' attorneys, members of the ACLU of Tennessee.

Even up until the weeks before his death they applied to Gov. Bill Lee to grant Carruthers clemency - something he refused to do, just two days prior to the botched execution on May 19.