It’s unlikely Gov. Bill Lee will call a death penalty moratorium before Tennessee’s next execution. Calls for a temporary suspension, investigation and corrective action plan have been ramping up since May.
That’s when the Tennessee Department of Correction tried and failed to execute Tony Carruthers. The medical team couldn’t establish a typical intravenous line into his arms. The protocol says in that case, the back-up plan is to have the on-site physician place a central line in a larger, deeper vein. Dr. Mark Fowler made several attempts, but ultimately failed. In all, the incident spanned about an hour. Attorneys challenging the lethal injection protocol raised concerns that Fowler hadn’t placed a central line in more than a decade and would struggle to perform the procedure if needed.
Gov. Bill Lee called into the prison that day to halt the execution attempts. He gave Carruthers a reprieve of one year.
Attorneys for death row inmates, social justice organizations and Republican lawmakers said Lee also needed to conduct an investigation. They likened the situation to one that unfolded in 2022. Lee found out TDOC hadn’t been testing its lethal drugs for potency or contaminants and commissioned an independent investigation. That took several months. He later ordered the agency to re-write its protocol, which took years. Carruthers was set to be the fourth person put to death under the new method.
But Lee told a group of reporters in Knoxville this week he won’t intervene.
“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.”
He noted that the execution was abandoned only because he personally called it off.
Darrell Hines is set to be executed next, on August 13. One of his attorneys, Kit Thomas, disagreed with Lee’s conclusion that the department followed the rules.
“The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) violated its own protocol by employing a doctor who did not know how to set a central line, resulting in May’s horrific botched execution attempt,” a written statement reads in part.
She said she hoped Lee would listen to the Republican lawmakers who asked him to conduct an investigation.
That group included Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and seven other state senators. They wrote a letter to Lee, delivered June 25. It said they were in favor of the death penalty, as long as it was carried out competently. They noted that Tennessee has been in hot water for mismanaging its lethal injection program before.
“Repeated failures of this kind do not advance justice; they obstruct it, prolong the suffering of victims’ families, and hand the opponents of capital punishment their most effective argument,” the letter reads.
They want an independent investigation, which would include “a full accounting of how the personnel involved were selected, what credentials they held, and whether they were qualified to perform the procedures the protocol requires.” They also want proof the drugs have been tested and that they’re in date. Expired pentobarbital can separate like a salad dressing, and injecting it can feel like having rocks in the veins. They want documentation of how TDOC is addressing any deficiencies — all before TDOC attempts another execution. And they want a copy of all the documentation for the general assembly to review.
TDOC has continued fighting against turning over that kind of documentation. It refused to bring in an independent physician to examine Carruthers after the failed execution attempt. Medical experts told the court those exams — and importantly, the interviews that come with them — are necessary to identify what mistakes led to the failure. Attorneys for Darrell Hines and Tony Carruthers said the agency wouldn’t confirm on the record whether the pentobarbital on hand is expired. The agency also won’t confirm whether it has brought in a different doctor in case a central line is needed. Hines’ attorneys note he has recently had multiple strokes and is frail — meaning an IV will be more difficult to establish.
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