Add The New York Post on Google A Tennessee death row inmate was spared execution Thursday morning after medical personnel failed to find a vein to deliver a lethal injection, state officials said.
Tony Carruthers, 57, was granted a one-year reprieve after medics at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville couldn’t find a suitable vein for a backup IV line needed to administer the deadly cocktail under state law, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
“Medical personnel quickly established a primary IV line; however, the team was unable to immediately establish a backup line pursuant to the lethal injection execution protocol,” officials said in a statement.
“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 execution was then called off.”
An attorney for Carruthers said medics struggled for more than an hour trying to find a vein, leaving her client “wincing and groaning” inside the death chamber.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee granted Carruthers a one year stay following the botched execution.
“I am granting Tony Von Carruthers a temporary reprieve from execution for one year,” he said in a statement.
Carruthers was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty in the 1994 kidnappings and murders of his 43-year-old mother, Delois Anderson, Marcellos Anderson, 21, and Frederick Tucker, 17.
The victims’ bodies were found buried underneath a casket in a Memphis cemetery on March 3, 1994.
Carruthers was forced to represent himself at trial after complaints and threats against his court-appointed lawyer and was convicted based on testimony from witnesses who claimed they heard him confess.
He has maintained his innocence since his conviction, with his lawyers arguing there wasn’t enough physical evidence to support the verdict.
“The State of Tennessee is currently torturing a man who maintains his innocence in the name of justice,” his attorney, Melanie Verdecia, said.
“This is not how our system is supposed to work.”
Carruthers was the first death row inmate scheduled to be executed in Tennessee this year.
