US attorneys say the death row suspect may have been killed by an expired drug Death Penalty Issues

Attorneys for the Tennessee inmate say they are concerned the state is considering using his time lethal injection drug on him to be killed Thursday, amid growing concern across the country as countries try to keep more of their drugs secret.

Attorneys for Tony Carruthers asked the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) twice last month if it had obtained the appropriate medication on the day of his execution and made sure the medication did not expire.

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The response of Assistant Attorney General John W Ayers did not respond directly, but said that the department will follow its policy of lethal injection, which includes regular checks of drugs to check expiration dates.

Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the kidnapping and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker in 1994.

The Tennessee Department of Corrections declined to comment Wednesday when asked by The Associated Press whether the drugs used in Carruther’s death have been used. Governor Bill Lee’s office did not immediately respond to a similar question.

Federal Public Defender Amy Harwell said in an email that expiration dates indicate when a drug can no longer be relied upon to achieve the desired effect.

“In execution terms, this can mean a slow, slow death without unconsciousness, where the body shuts down painfully and appropriately,” Harwell said.

Public criticism to be killed has made it harder for prisons to get lethal injection drugs, among the issues that are about to be handed out to those who use lethal injection. Some countries are forced to speed up or stop executions because of drug expiration dates.

In South Carolina, the killings had been going on for 12 years as the state struggled to find drugs. They were able to get it only after the government passed a shield law that kept the donor secret.

Tennessee argued in court that its shield extends to disclosing expiration dates. Shortly before Harold Nichols’ execution in December, Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon issued a statement “certifying that the drugs to be used in the execution of Mr. Nichols would not run out before he was killed and they did not run out”, according to the report.

“The fact that TDOC was willing to provide such assurances to Mr. Nichols, but not Mr. Carruthers, raises concerns that TDOC is seeking to use an expired drug,” Harwell wrote in a May 18 follow-up to Ayers’ letter.

Arkansas and Idaho are in trouble

In 2017, the governor of Arkansas at the time, Asa Hutchinson, issued warrants for the execution of eight inmates on federal charges. the line of death in an attempt to beat the clock on a batch of deadly drugs that are due to expire. The government killed four of the men, but the other four were allowed to live.

Arkansas has had no deaths since then, in part because of the difficulty in obtaining the drug.

A group of Texas inmates in 2023 tried to stop the state from using what they say is an expired and unsafe drug. Prison officials disputed his claims and said the government’s drugs were safe.

Lawyers for Idaho death row inmates have expressed similar concerns in 2024, as the state plans to try again to execute Thomas Creech after the first attempt failed.

The Federal Defender Services of Idaho told a federal judge that prison officials apparently failed to even check the expiration date of the lethal drug before accepting Creech’s death warrant in October 2024. Nine days later, the drug was returned to the vendor because it had expired, according to court documents. Idaho’s new law has changed the state’s main execution method to the firing squad in part because of the difficulty of lethal injection.

Tennessee’s problem with drugs

Tennessee he has a history of problems with his prescription drugs. In 2022, Oscar Smith came just minutes after the assassination of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee before his surprise release revealed that the government’s injection drugs had not been properly tested for purity and potency. The execution was held for two years to allow an independent investigation into the crisis.

The state attorney general’s office was forced to admit in court that two of Tennessee’s then-lethal injection agents “perjured themselves” by swearing that officials were testing the drug as required.

Tennessee released a new lethal injection protocol in December 2024 and resumed executions in 2025. Several inmates who were put to death have sued over the new protocols, arguing that the Department of Corrections did not follow the findings.

Meanwhile, the new process has not been smooth sailing. When Byron Black was put to death by lethal injection in August, he said, “it hurts a lot”. Prison officials did not say what might have caused the pain.