ACLU and ACLU of Mississippi Urge Court to Consider Racial Discrimination in Willie Manning Case

Tennessee's execution policies prevent the press from witnessing critical stages before and after a state execution. However, the public needs to know how they work—or don't work—to participate in informed public debate. The ACLU's State Supreme Court Initiative, alongside the ACLU of Tennessee, filed an amicus brief explaining why a provision in the Tennessee Constitution that guarantees access to government proceedings requires greater press access to executions.

NASHVILLE – This morning, Tennessee carried out a botched and torturous attempt to execute Tony Carruthers despite the state’s continued refusal to conduct forensic testing that could prove he was wrongfully convicted. Legal witnesses reported that the state spent more than an hour attempting to set an IV line for the lethal drugs while Mr. Carruthers groaned in pain. After nearly 90 minutes, the execution was halted by a one-year reprieve from Governor Lee. Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project had the following statement: “Permitting Tony Carruthers’s execution to move forward without ordering DNA testing was already a profound injustice. Today, that injustice became outright barbaric after Mr. Carruthers was subject to a botched execution attempt. “We are incredibly relieved Governor Lee issued a reprieve. We will fight to ensure that the state never again attempts to put Mr. Carruthers and his family through this torture. More than 130,000 people have signed petitions joining us in this fight, including exonerees who once faced wrongful convictions themselves. “We will also continue to push the governor to use this moment to allow the forensic testing that should have happened long ago. Tennessee cannot continue torturing a man while refusing to answer serious questions about his innocence.”

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee urged the U.S. Supreme Court today to stop Tennessee from executing Tony Carruthers and allow forensic testing that could prove his innocence. Mr. Carruthers is scheduled to be executed tomorrow, May 21, even though he may be innocent. Tennessee is sitting on unidentified DNA and fingerprint evidence that does not match Mr. Carruthers and, if tested, could exonerate him. The ACLU and the ACLU of Tennessee joined Mr. Carruthers’s legal team earlier this year to push for the unmatched forensic evidence to be compared to an alternative suspect identified in 2011 by Mr. Carruthers’s co-defendant. “We are only hours away from the state of Tennessee executing a potentially innocent man while they are sitting on evidence that could prove who really committed this crime,” said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “The Supreme Court now stands as the final safeguard between Tennessee and this irreversible injustice. The court must stand firmly on the side of truth, fairness, and the basic principle that we should not take a life while serious questions of innocence remain unanswered and while readily available forensic testing could answer those very questions.” On April 9, the ACLU filed a motion in the Tennessee Supreme Court asking the state to conduct DNA testing that could prove Mr. Carruthers was wrongfully convicted. The testing would likely take about two weeks to conduct. Three weeks after that filing, the Tennessee Supreme Court claimed that the motion was filed in the wrong court, despite clear language in Tennessee law indicating otherwise. They sent the request down to the lower courts only weeks before Mr. Carruthers’ execution date. By the time the case made it to the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals, the Tennessee Supreme Court assumed jurisdiction – putting the request exactly where it started, except five weeks later and only days before the execution. The ACLU is now asking the United States Supreme Court to reverse and reject the Tennessee Supreme Court’s denial of the testing after bouncing his case between courts. “There is no justice in rushing Tony Carruthers to the execution chamber without first testing evidence that could prove his innocence,” said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, legal director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “Mr. Carruthers was forced to represent himself at trial, and now faces death based on flimsy circumstantial evidence and unreliable witnesses. Forensic evidence the state refuses to test could change everything. The Supreme Court must act now to stop Tennessee from taking an irreversible step while so many critical questions remain unanswered.” On Monday, exonerees, faith leaders, and Tennesseans delivered a petition to Governor Bill Lee, signed by more than 130,000 people from across the country demanding that the governor stop the execution. Tens of thousands of people from across the globe have also called and sent messages directly to the governor’s office. Yesterday, despite these demands, the governor announced he was not planning on intervening to stop the execution. Mr. Carruthers was convicted without any physical evidence tying him to the crime and his conviction and death sentence rested on testimony from jailhouse informants, including one paid by the state who later recanted his statement. Since the first exoneration from DNA in 1989, 614 wrongly convicted people have been exonerated based on DNA tests that proved their innocence. Many of those exonerations involved the same warning signs present in Mr. Carruthers’s case, including unreliable witness testimony and inadequate legal representation.  

NASHVILLE – Exonerees, faith leaders, and Tennesseans from across the state gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol on Monday to deliver a petition signed by more than 130,000 people urging Governor Lee to stop the wrongful execution of Tony Carruthers. Tennessee is planning to execute Tony Carruthers on May 21 despite untested forensic evidence that could prove his innocence. “Today, tens of thousands of people from across the world and Tennessee made their voices heard with a clear and urgent message to Governor Lee: do not carry out this wrongful execution in our name,” said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “We are still fighting in court for forensic testing that could prove Tony’s innocence, but time is running out. With only days left, Governor Lee has the power and the duty to stop this execution before the state commits an irreversible injustice. If this execution moves forward, it will happen on his watch and despite clear warnings that an innocent man may be put to death.” Speakers included Ndume Olatushani, who spent 28 years in prison and 20 on death row in Tennessee for a crime he did not commit, and Tonya Carruthers, Mr. Carruthers’ sister. Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Faith Leaders of Color Coalition (FLOCC), Witness to Innocence, and several other groups participated in the delivery. “Like Tony, I was tried in Memphis, found guilty, and sentenced to death, based on questionable and fabricated evidence,” said Ndume Olatushani. “I realized then that Shelby County prosecutors were not interested in solving the case; they were only interested in closing it. It didn't matter that I was innocent. To them, that was beside the point. This is why Governor Lee must step in to order the testing of the DNA and fingerprint evidence in Tony’s case. If we get this wrong, we can't take it back." Earlier this month, attorneys for Mr. Carruthers met with Governor Lee’s office to urge him to grant clemency before Mr. Carruthers’ scheduled execution on May 21. The clemency petition describes the egregious injustices in his case, including that his conviction was reached without any physical evidence and based on testimony from informants, including one paid by the state who later recanted his statement. There has never been any physical evidence linking Mr. Carruthers to the crime, and yet the state of Tennessee continues to refuse to test DNA and fingerprint evidence that could exonerate him. In 2011, Mr. Carruthers’ co-defendant told an investigator that a different person committed the crime, yet the unmatched forensic evidence has never been tested against that suspect. The ACLU has active lawsuits in state and federal court, urging the state to stay the execution until they consider all the evidence and compare the DNA and fingerprints that do not match Mr. Carruthers to the alternative suspect identified by Mr. Carruthers’s co-defendant in 2011. Since the first exoneration from DNA in 1989, 614 wrongly convicted people have been exonerated based on DNA tests that demonstrated their innocence. Mr. Carruthers was denied a lawyer at trial. If he is executed, he would be the first person put to death who was forced to represent himself at trial since the Supreme Court affirmed the right to counsel in 1963. Additional statements from partner organizations can be found below: Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty: “Governors across the ideological spectrum are closely examining scheduled executions and exercising their power of clemency to address flaws in the capital punishment process. I hope Governor Lee joins his colleagues in Alabama and Oklahoma and stops Tony Carruthers's execution.” Reverend Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP): “Over the past few years, the Tennessee legislature has passed laws that preserve DNA evidence in capital cases and provide mechanisms for courts to order such critical testing, especially when lives are at stake. Governor Lee has the power to ensure this testing is done before Tennessee executes Tony Carruthers, and we urge him to use it.” Joia Erin Thornton, national director of Faith Leaders of Color Coalition (FLOCC): “We know the governor is a man of faith. And so we appeal to his faith today to listen to the voices of those who refuse to have blood on our hands in Tennessee. We also understand that there were victims in this case and we recognize them and their families, however, we cannot confidently say that Tony is responsible, they also deserve the truth.”