Tennessee Death Row Inmate Attorneys Question Expired Lethal Drugs for Thursday

Attorneys for a Tennessee death row inmate have raised concerns that the state may be planning to use expired lethal injection drugs for his execution scheduled for Thursday. The legal team for Tony Carruthers, 57, says the Tennessee Department of Correction has declined to provide assurances that the drugs have not expired, a refusal they argue is a departure from past practice and signals a potential problem.

Carruthers was sentenced to death for the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker. His attorneys twice asked the department last month whether it had secured appropriate drugs and for confirmation they were not expired. In a response, Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers did not directly answer but stated the department would comply with its protocol, which includes regular inventory to monitor expiration dates.

When asked directly on Wednesday, the department declined to say whether the drugs for Carruthers’s execution are expired. The office of Governor Bill Lee did not immediately respond to a similar inquiry.

Federal Public Defender Amy Harwell outlined the risks in written correspondence. She stated that...