Doctors warn against Tennessee death penalty protocols

Tennessee’s execution protocol is medically unethical and should be revamped before further executions occur, nearly 40 health care professionals said in a letter to Gov. Bill Lee.

Like the coalition of faith leaders who asked for a moratorium on executions earlier this month, the physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals who signed the July 28 letter said they were motivated to speak up after the gruesome and botched execution of Tony Carruthers in May.

Carruthers spent 90 minutes bleeding and writhing in agony as an attending physician made repeated unsuccessful attempts to insert an IV into the inmate’s chest after being unable to find useable veins in the arms, legs, and feet. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve after the ordeal.

“Although as a group we take no position on capital punishment, each of us was horrified by the torturous treatment of Mr. Carruthers. Reports of the prolonged, bungled attempts to establish venous access by a doctor who lacked the training or skill to perform this task confirmed our fears about Tennessee’s persistently problematic executions,” the letter says.

Among the flaws in the state’s execution protocol is its requirement that a central IV line be placed in an inmate’s chest when an arm or leg is inaccessible, Nashville physician John Greer explained during a press conference called to announce the open letter.

The procedure demands placing a needle in a vein located just above the heart, he said. “It should only be done by someone with specific training who performs the procedure routinely. It requires local anesthetics and is fraught with risks, including a collapsed lung and bleeding.”

But physicians, pharmacists, and other medical professionals are required by the state to participate in executions in direct conflict with the commitments they have made to preserve life, Nashville physician Robert Quinn said.

“Physicians are not only bound by the Hippocratic Oath but are also prohibited from participating in executions by the American Medical Association. The AMA is clear about this, stating on its website … physicians must not participate in a legally authorized execution.”

Carruthers’ ordeal was “the predictable result” of an execution system that involves health care professionals “willing to set aside their professional ethics,” Quinn added.

“If Tennessee is going to continue with executions, it must find a way to do so that is humane, does not cause unnecessary pain and suffering to the person being executed, and does not inflict trauma on the TDOC (Tennessee Department of Corrections) staff who are participating.”

The physicians’ letter elaborated on the psychological trauma the death penalty inflicts on prison staff.

Many former correctional professionals have spoken out about the emotional toll of proximity to and participation in executions, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicidality. This risk is greatly exacerbated when executions go visibly awry, as in Carruthers’ case.

The state’s execution process came under further scrutiny when the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed a senior judge as a special master tasked with examining the scheduled lethal injection of Christa Pike on Aug. 30.

The court granted the arrangement in part to examine the constitutionality of the state’s plan to move Pike to an all-male facility prior to the execution and conducting using an all-male team for the lethal injection. Pike is on Death Row for the 1995 killing of a classmate.

“Christa suffered unimaginable sexual violence and abuse by adult male authority figures throughout her childhood,” said attorney Luke Ihne, one of Pike’s attorneys. “Housing her, even temporarily, in an all-male facility under 24-hour surveillance by male officers and assigning all-male teams to extract her from her cell and strap her to the execution table, is inherently cruel and torturous given her history.”

The special master also is responsible for determining Pike’s claims that she has “small and compromised veins” that would subject her to “serious illness and needless suffering,” the court’s order said.

And there is certainly cause for concern about that prospect given recent events in Tennessee, Ihne added. “As we all saw with Tony Carruthers, the state does not have the qualified, trained personnel in place to carry out Christa’s execution in a way that will not lead to a gruesome spectacle.”

If executed, Pike would be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in 200 years.

Source: baptistnews.com, Jeff Brumley, August 3, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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