"He Was in Agony": Tennessee Issues 1-Year Stay for Tony Carruthers After Botched Execution Attempt

[Uncle Joe]

Tennessee death row prisoner Tony Carruthers was issued a one-year stay of execution last Thursday after prison officials were unable to find a backup injection vein in a botched execution attempt that left Carruthers suffering and in pain for over an hour. Nashville reporter Steven Hale attended the execution and describes his and fellow witnesses' confusion as they heard the sounds of what Carruthers's attorneys are calling "torture." Per Tennessee's lethal injection protocol, witnesses can only see inside the execution chamber once the injection process has begun. Carruthers, who has long struggled with mental health issues and represented himself in his trial, was convicted of triple homicide in 1996. He has always maintained his innocence, but courts have thus far blocked his requests for modern-day crime scene analysis that could lead to his exoneration. Tennessee resumed capital punishment last year, following a three-year moratorium put in place to review the state's lethal injection protocols. Since its resumption, three people have been executed by the state, all by lethal injection. Carruthers would have been the fourth.

[JBTaurus83]

1. What a horrible story

It’s hard for me to sympathize but I’m trying.

[cab67]

2. I'll withhold judgment until a modern analysis of the evidence can be done.

If he's guilty, I won't feel much sympathy.

But that doesn't change my opposition to the death penalty. Most of it is centered on my refusal to accept the chance, no matter how small, that an innocent person might be wrongly executed. It's happened before.

There's also the whole civilized-countries-just-don't-do-that-shit-anymore thing.

[JBTaurus83]

3. I oppose it as a well

But I can see why it’s a hard issue.

[BradBo]

4. I had a tech stick me 5 times to find a vein. It WAS agony.

The RN came in and freaked out on them. My arm had a massive bruise after he surgery.