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It was not because of his attorneys’ concerns that the lethal injection drugs were expired. (The Tennessee Department of Correction has refused to disclose the expiration date on its drugs, and has fought a court order to do so.)
Nor was it because the governor or courts intervened. They didn’t, despite calls from the Tennessee Innocence Project to study untested DNA samples from the crime scenefirst, and his attorneys’ attempts to show that he’s mentally incompetent to be executed.
The reason why Carruthers didn’t die yesterday was because of his veins.
WHAT TO KNOW
A woman enters the area set up for those opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in May 2025. Credit: Mark Humphrey / AP Photo (file)The execution was called off after officials struggled to find a vein for an hour, says Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers who was present.
An email to a spokesperson for the state corrections department was not immediately returned.
According to reporter Travis Loller from the Associated Press, this is not the first time such an incident has happened in states that perform the death penalty.
“In Idaho in 2024, medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV line to execute Thomas Creech, one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates, before calling it off,” Loller writes. “Idaho Gov. Brad Little subsequently signed a law making firing squad the state’s primary method of execution.”
Alabama also paused executions for several months after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in 2022. Smith later chose an alternative method, a form of asphyxiation, and was killed in 2024.
In Tennessee, execution drugs have posed other problems. In 2022, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed the state’s lethal injection drugs were not being properly tested for purity and potency.
The state attorney general’s office was also forced to concede in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs had “incorrectly testified” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.
Tennessee released a new lethal injection process in December 2024, and restarted executions in 2025.
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MORE TO KNOW
- Nashville’s Metro Council is asking the Nashville Electric Service for a temporary moratorium on its new tree trimming policy — though it’s unclear it will make an immediate difference. City leaders expressed concern around the lack of communication and transparency about the NES policy to trim more aggressively around power infrastructure following the January ice storm. But NES told WPLN’s Caroline Eggers that the company does not plan to alter its policy. “Our team of arborists will continue the current trim cycle, periodically review the reliability data around trimmed corridors, and work directly with any customers who have questions or concerns,” NES said in an email.
- Nashville is now spending substantially more on public parks: $155 per resident, up from $116 last year. The annual ParkScore report from the Trust for Public Land found that this brings Metro’s park spending up to the national average. The trust says Nashville’s parks haven’t deteriorated in the past year, but that other cities saw more improvements. The analysis consistently scores Nashville high for the large size of its parks, but low for having enough parks for residents to walk to within 10 minutes. [WPLN]
- Last year, Tennessee implemented a cell phone ban during classroom instruction time. Most recently, a law requires schools serving students in kindergarten through fifth grade to develop a policy that limits the use of digital devices. WPLN education reporter Camellia Burris spent some time talking to students and administrators at one private school that has embraced low-tech learning.
- Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to a man who was jailed over a Facebook post he made about Charlie Kirk. While many people lost their jobs over social media comments about Kirk’s death, Larry Bushart’s case led to criminal prosecution. The 61-year-old retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars in Perry County before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October. During his time in jail, Bushart lost his post-retirement job and missed his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter, according to a federal lawsuit Bushart filed. [Associated Press]
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