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The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution’s warden and several other prison staff are inside the death chamber. So is a spiritual adviser for the condemned. But everyone else is in a viewing gallery.
Journalists submit applications. Then, the Department of Correction selects seven media witnesses.
1️⃣ from the Associated Press
1️⃣ from an outlet based where the murder occurred
1️⃣ metro print reporter
1️⃣ nonprofit reporter
2️⃣ two TV reporters, and,
1️⃣ radio reporter
There are a handful attorneys — representatives for the person being executed as well as some from the AG’s office. The sheriff from the area often comes. They’re all in one viewing room. High ranking officials like the TDOC commissioner and victims’ family members are in another room.
None of those people watched the attempted execution of Tony Carruthers.
WHAT TO KNOW
Guards watch the areas reserved for demonstrators outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the execution of Byron Black on Aug. 5, 2025. (Mark Humphrey, AP)Those viewing galleries have big glass windows looking into the chamber.
A black curtain hangs over them. The state’s lethal injection protocol says the curtain stays closed until prison staff have IV lines established in each of the condemned’s arms. Once they’re in and saline is flowing, the curtain is rolled back.
Until then, all of the witnesses are sitting in the dark. Typically, you can hear things behind the curtain: the prison staff working on the IVs, the spiritual adviser praying, reading psalms, or offering comfort. Then you hear someone pulling the curtain chain.
But the curtain never opened during Carruthers’ execution. Witnesses sat in the dark for over an hour because the staff couldn’t get his IV established. The protocol says in that case, a doctor has to place a central line — a catheter in a deeper vein. A doctor made multiple incisions on Carruthers’ chest, attempting to place a line. All failed. He was trying to place one in Carruthers’ shoulder when the execution was called off.
Usually, at a press conference outside the prison, the seven media witnesses explain in detail what happened. That’s to ensure an accurate historical record of the state’s execution methods and outcomes.
There has been only one account offered to the public — that of Carruther’s attorney, Maria DeLiberato.
If a Davidson County court order held up, witnesses would have seen everything.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a lawsuit last year, arguing that the closed-curtain policy hampers government transparency and accountability. To obtain the most accurate account, the lawsuit argued, journalists need to see the entire process, start to finish. Because something can go wrong during the insertion.
In January, a judge agreed. “A meaningful and full observation of executions allows the public to assess whether the state carries out death sentences in a lawful and humane manner,” Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles wrote.
The state appealed. And in April, theTennessee Supreme Court temporarily blocked Myles’ order. TDOC could leave the curtain closed during Carruthers execution.
The next execution is scheduled for August, but a lot could change before then. Public defenders are asking Gov. Bill Lee to halt all executions until at least next year. That’s when an extensive legal challenge to the state’s lethal injection protocol — goes to trial.
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On today’s episode of the NashVillagerpodcast
with host Nina Cardona 🎙️
What’s the origin story of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians? Tens of thousands of Cherokee people were marched out of our region in the Trail of Tears. A handful managed to stay here. Plus the local news for May 28, 2026, and Healthcare Hollow looks at the fight for a hospital in Jellico, Tennessee.
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MORE TO KNOW
- Metro Nashville is suing Publix, claiming its pharmacies helped fuel the opioid epidemic. The city is seeking to recover taxpayer dollars it spent on responding to a surge in opioid addiction and overdoses, WSMV reports. In the suit, the city alleges that Publix conspired to distribute substantial amounts of opioid prescriptions while knowing that they were being trafficked or used illicitly.
- Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Roots” will return to Knox County Schools’ libraries after it was removed earlier this month. “Roots,” which traces Haley’s family lineage through the mid-Atlantic slave trade, was removed because of concerns about a rape scene. School officials determined the book violated the state’s Age Appropriate Materials Act. That prohibits school libraries from having access to books that depict sexually explicit content or excessive violence. In a memo obtained by sister station WUOT, Superintendent Jon Rysewick notes the initial decision to remove “Roots” from library shelves was in “no way a commentary on the historical, cultural or literary value of the novel.” The decision, which sparked national outrage, comes a few years after the book was listed as an official book of Tennessee.
- The district attorney for Shelby County is suing the state over two newly signed laws related to the Safe Memphis Task Force,the Tennessee Lookout reports. District Attorney Steven Mulroy is a Democrat, and his GOP critics accuse him of being soft on crime. This year, the Republican supermajority passed one law that requires the Shelby County DA to provide reports every ten days to the state’s attorney general, explaining why cases related to Task Force arrests have been dismissed or settled. A second law allows Tennessee’s attorney general to view internal files from Mulroy’s office and share them with state lawmakers. Mulroy says reports from the task force often lack information needed to pursue cases, or that information is incorrect. In the suit, Mulroy and his attorneys argue both laws unconstitutionally target Shelby County and violate a longstanding tradition of prosecutors having discretion to decide which cases they pursue.
FROM WNXP
The Nashville Wellness Fest started pre-COVID, WNXP’s Marquis Munson writes. Its organizer, Paul Rowney, was publishing a health and wellness magazine in Nashville and ran the event alongside it. Once COVID came along the magazine ended, however, the show continued.
”There’s about 130 health and wellness vendors of all shapes and sizes,” Rowney said. “A lot of functional, holistic and alternative therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, to dentists and the more traditional stuff…here’s a huge range. But on top of that, we organize free yoga sessions that people can just turn up to with their own mats. We have some therapy demonstrations, so people can actually get involved in watching or we have an acupuncture demonstration as well. These are all free once you’ve paid to get in. There’s also free food sampling where various people come along, local cooks and chefs, and hand out samples of their food. So there’s quite a lot to see and do.”Get more info
FROM THIS IS NASHVILLE
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