ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Stop Tennessee’s Wrongful Execution of Tony Carruthers

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.”  

Tennessee plans to execute Tony Carruthers on May 21 even though they refuse to run a simple fingerprint comparison and DNA testing that could prove what Tony has been arguing for 30 years - that he is innocent of this crime and that Tennessee convicted and sentenced the wrong man to death.

MEMPHIS – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a motion in the Tennessee Supreme Court today seeking DNA testing that in the case of Tony Carruthers that could prove his innocence. The state plans to execute Mr. Carruthers on May 21 despite unmatched fingerprints and DNA evidence in his case that have never been compared to the most likely alternative suspect identified by Mr. Carruthers’ co-defendant in 2011. There has never been any physical evidence linking Mr. Carruthers to the crime and the case against him was built on testimony from jailhouse informants, widely known to be one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. One of the individuals responsible for the murders later stated that Mr. Carruthers was not involved and instead pointed investigators to another man. Finally, within the last two years, the State Attorney finally admitted what it had successfully hid for three decades – that key State witness Alfredo Shaw was a paid career informant prior to, during, and after Mr. Carruthers trial. Meanwhile, there is unidentified DNA on evidence found with the victims that does not match Tony Carruthers and has never been compared to the alternative suspect. The motion filed today asks the court to order comparison of that unknown DNA to that suspect and to permit testing of three additional items that have never been analyzed. These items were all found with the victims’ bodies and are likely to contain evidence pointing to the person who is actually responsible for the crime. “Before the state carries out an irreversible punishment, it must answer the most basic question: did they get the right person?” said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “Tennessee has the forensic evidence that could help answer that question, and they must test it before it is too late. There is no justification for barreling towards an execution while DNA evidence that could prove who really committed this crime remains untested.” In addition to the DNA evidence, there are five fingerprints recovered from the crime scene that do not match Mr. Carruthers and remain unidentified. A separate motion seeking fingerprint testing that Mr. Carruthers filed pro se in September 2021 is still pending before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals at Jackson. Mr. Carruthers was forced to represent himself at trial after the court became frustrated with his repeated dismissal of appointed counsel, which was due to his longstanding and well-documented mental illness. He did not ask to represent himself and instead repeatedly requested an attorney. His self-representation was found to be so prejudicial to his co-defendant that he was granted a new trial. The co-defendant, who was initially sentenced to death was allowed to enter a plea to a reduced charge, sentenced to a term of years, and was released from prison in 2015. If executed, Mr. Carruthers would be the first person in nearly a century to be put to death after being forced to represent himself at trial.

As executions surged to their highest level in years, public support, jury verdicts, and new death sentences continued a historic decline—exposing a punishment sustained by political power, not public will.