Politics
Tennessee prisoners cite two failed execution attempts in bid to challenge injection protocol
Death row prisoners want to add new claims to their lawsuit against Tennessee’s 2025 lethal-injection protocol, pointing to unsuccessful execution attempts involving Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike. A Davidson County judge is scheduled to consider the request alongside the state’s effort to dismiss the case.
Attorneys for Tennessee death row prisoners are asking a Davidson County court to let them expand a lawsuit challenging the state’s lethal-injection protocol, arguing that two unsuccessful execution attempts this year strengthen their claims that the procedure risks severe pain.
The request, filed Thursday, seeks permission to add allegations about the 2025 protocol to a case brought in March 2025. The state has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, contending in part that the prisoners’ concerns were speculative.
The prisoners’ attorneys say the attempted executions of Tony Carruthers in May and Christa Pike in September show the risks they raised are not merely hypothetical. Tennessee carried out one execution in 2026, executing Darrell Hines on Aug. 13, while the attempts involving Carruthers and Pike did not proceed successfully, the filing says.
Pike received two doses of pentobarbital during the Sept. 30 attempt, survived and was hospitalized before returning to prison. The Tennessee Department of Correction has not publicly explained what went wrong. Gov. Bill Lee paused further executions after the incident while the state reviews it.
“Our original complaint alleged that the protocol created significant risks of botched executions,” attorney Kit Thomas said. “Now those risks have become reality, and we need to supplement the complaint to present all available information for the court’s review.”
The plaintiffs are due to respond to the state’s dismissal motion Nov. 2. A hearing on both the dismissal motion and the request to supplement the lawsuit is scheduled for Nov. 6 in Davidson County Chancery Court.