Attorneys for Tennessee death row inmate Tony Carruthers have raised concerns that the state may plan to use expired lethal injection drugs at his execution, pointing to the state's refusal to offer assurances it provided to a previously executed inmate.
A jury convicted Carruthers, now 57, on charges stemming from the 1994 kidnappings and killings of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson — Marcellos's mother — and Frederick Tucker, for which he received a death sentence. Last month, his legal team sent two separate inquiries to the Tennessee Department of Correction asking for confirmation that the state had obtained suitable, unexpired drugs ahead of the scheduled execution, according to CNN. The response from Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers sidestepped the question, saying only that the department would follow its lethal injection protocol — a document that calls for regular drug inventory checks to track expiration dates.
According to CNN, Federal Public Defender Amy Harwell pointed to proceedings surrounding the December execution of Harold Nichols, in which Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon voluntarily offered to submit a declaration guaranteeing the chemicals were not expired and would not expire before the execution was carried out. The state made no equivalent offer to Carruthers' legal team. "The fact that TDOC was willing to provide such assurances to Mr. Nichols, but not Mr. Carruthers, raises serious concerns that TDOC is, in fact, intending to use expired drugs," Harwell wrote in a May 18 letter.
