Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has spoken with state Senate leadership regarding the lawmakers’ June request for an independent review of the failed execution of Tony Carruthers.
“I’ve spoken with Senate leadership about that and expressed to them what our plan is moving forward,” Lee told reporters following remarks at a Rotary Club of Nashville meeting on Monday.
Nine Republican legislators sent a letter to Lee on June 25, asking the governor to halt executions until identifying what went wrong in the Carruthers case. The execution was scheduled for May 21 and resulted in over an hour of failed attempts at intravenous and central line insertion.
“It’s my responsibility to make sure that (the death penalty) is carried out justly and legally," Lee said.
"It’s one of the most difficult things to do, but I am committed to making sure that it is done in the way that it should be.”
Lee previously paused executions in 2022 after the state failed to follow its protocol. When asked by a reporter if there was a reason to pause executions again, Lee answered that the Carruthers case was “not a matter of not following protocols.”
“It’s a different scenario, and that’s why different decisions have been made,” Lee said.
Three executions are scheduled in Tennessee for the remainder of 2026. The next execution, for inmate Darrell Hines, is scheduled for Aug. 13. Hines' attorneys have asked Lee to issue a reprieve, citing "a pattern of execution mistakes" by the Tennessee Department of Correction.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Gov. Lee rejects execution pause, cites different reason for failure
