Florida attorneys use failed Carruthers execution as reason to stay theirs

Attorneys representing a Florida death row inmate, Richard Knight, who is slated to be executed on May 21 at 6 p.m., are now citing the failed execution of Tony Carruthers in Tennessee as a reason to grant a stay of execution to Knight.

The motion for an emergency stay was filed at 1:31 p.m. Eastern Time, and alleges Florida not requiring a physician to be present, as Tennessee does, makes it more likely for errors to take place.

"Despite the requirements set forth in Tennessee's lethal injection protocol for execution team member qualifications, Mr. Carruthers' execution was botched because the execution team — which required and, in fact, included a physician — failed to establish venous access," the motion read. "This is the worst case scenario that was presented by Mr. Knight in his facial constitutional challenge brought to this court in the above-captioned case. Before another botched execution is allowed to take place, this time in Florida, Mr. Knight submits that a stay of execution is warranted in order to allow his counsel to investigate the Tennessee situation and raise the necessary challenges to Mr. Knight's execution based on that information."

Carruthers was slated to be executed May 21, at 10 a.m., but it was called off after repeated attempts to find a vein for lethal injection failed.

Executioners attempted to insert an IV line into Carruthers' veins for about an hour and 20 minutes, said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project. They tried his right side, left side, through his foot, jugular, chest and shoulder.

It took about 20 minutes, according to DeLiberato, for the first IV to be inserted. However, a backup IV was unable to be inserted, the Tennessee Department of Corrections said in a statement.

A central line was also attempted, but DeLiberato said Carruthers was being "stabbed" two or three times and felt pain despite receiving a lidocaine shot. She described them attempting to insert the central line as "torture."

"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."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, in the minutes following the execution's cancellation, issued a one-year reprieve from execution. The Tennessee Supreme Court sets execution dates.

Lee issuing a reprieve to Carruthers came two days after he refused to grant Carruthers clemency.

Carruthers has been on death row since a 1996 conviction for kidnapping, killing and burying three people beneath another person's grave in a Memphis cemetery.

A limited amount of physical evidence was presented at trial, with the bulk of it coming in the form of testimony from other drug dealers and inmates who knew Carruthers.

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. In the weeks before his execution, the ACLU filed motion after motion, and appeal after appeal, to have DNA and fingerprint evidence tested.

The ACLU argued this evidence could exonerate Carruthers, but the courts all denied the requests to have the evidence tested.

Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and [email protected], and followed on X @LucasFinton.