While Tennessee has paused all executions after lethal injection drugs did not kill Christa Pike, the legal work on behalf of death row inmate Gary Wayne Sutton continues.
Sutton was scheduled to be put to death on Dec. 3 for the 1992 murder of Tommy Griffin in Blount County.
“This news gives us little joy, because nobody should be forced to suffer the way Christa Pike did this week and Tony Carruthers did in May,” said Johnna Henry, an attorney with the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender. “Still, we are relieved that Governor Lee is taking the deep problems with the state’s execution protocols seriously, and we are thankful that Gary’s execution has been paused.”
In May, the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to execute Carruthers
when personnel repeatedly tried to establish IV access but could not establish the second line required under the state's protocol.
Sutton's attorneys say his intellectual disability needs to be considered. Executing a person with intellectual disability is prohibited under both federal and state law. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
"Evidence of Sutton’s intellectual disability raises serious questions about how his original 1996 trial was conducted, and whether he was meaningfully able to assist his attorneys in that proceeding," the attorney's statement reads.
A decision on whether a judge will hear evidence about his disability is pending with the Tennessee Supreme Court.
The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said 144 people have had death sentences vacated since 2002 due to intellectual disabilities.
Sutton has maintained his innocence, and his attorney argued his case has too many complications to allow for his execution to proceed. The medical examiner who testified at his trial was later discredited and stripped of his license.
"Prosecutors never established a motive for Sutton to kill Griffin, and they offered no physical evidence connecting Sutton to the crime," she said in the statement.
Sutton was tried jointly with his uncle, James Dellinger, for the murders of Griffin and his sister, 34-year-old Connie Branam. Dellinger died of natural causes on death row in 2023.
Gov. Bill Lee called for a "comprehensive, third-party review" after Pike's botched execution and said no other executions would take place on his watch. Lee's term ends in January.
Anthony Nicotera covers public safety for Knox News. Email: anthony.nicotera@knoxnews.com
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Relieved by execution pause, attorney says work on Gary Sutton's behalf continues
