2026年5月21日 / 美国东部时间下午2:43 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
田纳西州死囚托尼·卡拉瑟斯的律师表示，该州于周四中止了对他的行刑，原因是负责建立静脉通道以注射致命药物的工作人员耗时超过一小时仍未能成功插管。
“他们对他施以酷刑，”律师玛丽亚·德利贝拉托在一条通过美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）获得的短信中说道，“当他们尝试进行中心静脉置管时，往他胸部注射了利多卡因，但他告诉他们仍能感觉到穿刺的痛感，可他们还是强行进行了穿刺。”
德利贝拉托在短信中称，现年57岁的卡拉瑟斯一直在呻吟，尝试注射的部位出现了出血。她表示，工作人员先后三次尝试在这名囚犯的手臂和脚部建立静脉通道，还试图穿刺他颈部的静脉。
卡拉瑟斯的辩护团队曾向田纳西州地区法院法官提出紧急禁令，要求中止行刑，称反复插管的行为“构成了残忍且不寻常的惩罚”，侵犯了他的宪法权利。但法官驳回了这一请求，理由是其团队未能提供足够证据证明州政府的行为属于“残忍且不寻常”。
据美国公民自由联盟的一名发言人透露，田纳西州州长比尔·李已发布缓刑令，暂停了行刑程序，但目前尚不清楚该暂停是临时性的还是永久性的。
李在周四回应卡拉瑟斯的减刑请求的声明中，维持了对卡拉瑟斯的死刑判决。
“在仔细考虑托尼·冯·卡拉瑟斯的减刑请求，并全面审查案件后，我维持田纳西州的原判，”该州长说道。
卡拉瑟斯因1994年绑架并杀害马塞洛斯·安德森、其母亲德洛伊斯·安德森以及弗雷德里克·塔克而被定罪并判处死刑。
但长期以来，维权人士一直呼吁李中止卡拉瑟斯的行刑，以便其法律团队能够更深入地评估可能证明他无罪的DNA证据。在田纳西州死囚区度过的30年里，卡拉瑟斯一直坚称自己无罪。
在周四随紧急动议一同发布的声明中，卡拉瑟斯的律师将州政府不顾其开展法医分析的努力、执意推进行刑的行为描述为“严重的不公”。法庭文件显示，州政府驳回了其辩护团队提出的对从受害者身上提取的证据进行“定罪后”DNA检测的动议。
“当田纳西州为注射致命药物建立静脉通道失败后，行刑人员仍执意推进这场拙劣的行刑，这起不公变得愈发野蛮，”律师兼死刑项目主任卡西·斯塔布斯说道。
美国公民自由联盟在一份请愿书中指责田纳西州领导层忽视了卡拉瑟斯案件中的诸多问题。该机构称，对他的定罪仅基于“付费线人”的证词，没有任何实物证据能将他与罪行联系起来。
据美国公民自由联盟透露，定罪后的法医检测本旨在评估“犯罪现场遗留的未匹配指纹和DNA”，这些证据“从未与卡拉瑟斯的同案被告十多年前指认的另一名嫌疑人进行过比对”。
美联社与梅利莎·奎因为本报道供稿。
Tennessee stops execution after failing to find inmate’s vein for lethal drugs, attorney says
May 21, 2026 / 2:43 PM EDT / CBS News
Tennessee halted the execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers on Thursday, his attorney said, after the officers tasked with establishing an intravenous line through which to administer lethal drugs failed to do so for more than an hour.
“They tortured him,” said the attorney Maria DeLiberato, in a text message that CBS News obtained through the American Civil Liberties Union. “When they tried to do the central line, they put a shot of lidocaine in his chest and he told them he could still feel the puncture and they did the puncture anyway.”
In the text, DeLiberato said Carruthers, 57, was groaning and bleeding from his attempted injection sites. She said officers tried three times to establish the line in the inmate’s arms and feet, and also attempted to access a vein in his neck.
Carruthers’ defense team had asked a Tennessee district court judge to stop his execution in an emergency order, which alleged that the repeated attempts “constituted cruel and unusual punishment” and violated his constitutional rights. The judge denied that request on the grounds that his team had not met their burden of proof to demonstrate the state’s actions were “cruel and unusual.”
While Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a reprieve, pausing the execution proceedings, whether it would be temporary or permanent was unclear, according to an ACLU spokesperson.
Lee upheld the state’s death sentence for Carruthers in a statement responding to his clemency request on Thursday.
“After deliberate consideration of Tony Von Carruthers’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee,” the governor said.
Carruthers was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker.
But advocates have long called on Lee to halt Carruthers’ execution so that his legal team could more deeply evaluate DNA evidence that they believed might exonerate him. Throughout his 30 years on Tennessee’s death row, Carruthers has maintained his innocence.
In statements released alongside the emergency motion on Thursday, Carruthers’ attorneys described the state’s decision to move ahead with the execution despite blocking his efforts to run forensic analyses as “a grave injustice.” His defense team’s motion for a “post-conviction” DNA test on evidence taken from the victims was denied by the state, court filings show.
“This injustice turned barbaric when Tennessee’s efforts to set an IV line for the lethal drugs failed and the executioners continued to press forward anyway with the botched execution,” said attorney and Capital Punishment Project director Cassy Stubbs.
The ACLU, in a petition, accused Tennessee leadership for neglecting to address issues with Carruthers’ case. It said his conviction rested on the testimonies of “paid jailhouse informants,” and no physical evidence connects him to the crime.
The post-conviction forensic testing had sought to evaluate “unmatched fingerprints and DNA from the crime scene,” which “have never been compared” to an alternative suspect that Carruthers’ co-defendant identified more than a decade ago, according to the ACLU.
The Associated Press and Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.
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