Tennessee doctors demand removal from executions after botched lethal injection

In May, a team of health workers spent over an hour trying to insert IV lines into death-row inmate Tony Carruthers at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, ultimately failing and causing the inmate pain and bleeding. Governor Bill Lee intervened, ordering the execution halted and later granting Carruthers a one-year reprieve. The incident spurred more than 40 Tennessee doctors and nurses to write to the governor, demanding a suspension of executions and the removal of pharmacists, physicians, and nurses from the lethal-injection protocol, which they say breaches the American Medical Association’s ethical standards.

Retired hematologist John Greer warned that central-line placement is a high-risk procedure unsuitable for unpracticed personnel. Several Republican state senators have joined the call for a moratorium, arguing that botched executions undermine the system’s credibility. The governor, however, insists the Department of Corrections acted correctly and that future executions will proceed as planned. A lawsuit has been filed challenging the prison’s practice of shielding the IV-placement process from media view.