Prompted by the recent botched exe­cu­tion attempt of Tony Carruthers, a for­mer Tennessee exe­cu­tion offi­cial is plead­ing with Governor Bill Lee to pause exe­cu­tions in the state. On May 21, 2026, Tony Carruthers’ exe­cu­tion team failed to estab­lish sec­ondary and cen­tral IV lines as required after over an hour of attempts and more than a dozen punctures. Ian Congleton, July 22, 2026Tennessee defend­ers have been at the fore­front of lit­i­ga­tion focus­ing on exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols amidst ongo­ing con­cerns about the state’s exe­cu­tion process. Following this, in January 2026, a coali­tion of news orga­ni­za­tions were grant­ed a tem­po­rary injunc­tion to force wider trans­paren­cy around the IV-inser­tion phase of the state’s execution process. His con­vic­tion relied heav­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a jail­house infor­mant, who Mr. Carruthers’ coun­sel lat­er found was paid for his tes­ti­mo­ny.