NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Darrell Hines have asked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to grant a reprieve, citing Hines’ severe medical condition following multiple strokes and what they describe as a pattern of execution failures by the Tennessee Department of Correction, according to a press release issued Monday.
Attorneys are seeking a reprieve “until the Tennessee Department of Corrections can demonstrate it is capable of carrying out executions in accordance with the Constitution, state law, and its own protocol.”
“Mr. Hines is scheduled to be executed on August 13,” the release states. Attorneys sent a letter to the governor requesting a reprieve “on the heels of the botched execution attempt of Tony Carruthers,” according to the release.
His execution would be the first since Tennessee “botched its attempt to execute” Tony Carruthers on May 21, according to the letter, which argues that the incident exposed critical failures within the department’s execution and pre-execution procedures.
The letter cites Hines’ medical impairments following a series of strokes in December and January that left him confined to the prison infirmary.
“He is unable to walk and is confined to his bed except for brief periods when he is placed in a wheelchair. He cannot move his left arm, hand, or leg. He cannot see out of his left eye. He is unable to move without assistance. He has major neurological and cognitive impairments. He is in constant pain. The prospect of executing such a profoundly disabled individual is horrifying.”
The letter also references the execution attempt of Carruthers, “during which executioners spent over an hour repeatedly jabbing him in his arms, hands, feet, chest and neck in an attempt to establish an intravenous line.” The execution was ultimately halted after Gov. Lee granted a one-year reprieve.
The filing further points to documented failures by the Tennessee Department of Correction to conduct required testing of execution chemicals, which experts said led to concerns that “TDOC leadership viewed the lethal injection process through a tunnel vision, result-oriented lens.”
In addition, the letter argues that TDOC’s use of a physician “who had not set a central line in over a decade in the botched execution of Mr. Carruthers is but the starkest example of its inability to constitutionally administer capital punishment under the 2025 Lethal Injection Protocol.”
The release notes what it describes as a long history of mismanagement by TDOC in administering execution procedures.
“The likelihood of another botched execution is not speculative or hypothetical, particularly in light of Mr. Hines’s significant medical problems. TDOC’s documented mismanagement of the lethal injection process shows that its personnel lack the knowledge, skills, and training to avoid serious mistakes and to adhere to the execution protocol,” the letter states.
“Mr. Hines is among the plaintiffs who have raised constitutional challenges to Tennessee’s 2025 lethal injection protocol,” according to the press release.
Hines’ attorneys have also asked TDOC to confirm “whether it plans to use the same doctor in his execution as it used for Mr. Carruthers, and whether it intends to execute him with expired drugs.”
According to the release, TDOC refused to answer similar requests.
The letter concludes by asking for a reprieve for Hines until Tennessee courts fully consider the constitutionality of the state’s 2025 Lethal Injection Protocol.
“Only by allowing the court process to conclude can Tennesseans be confident that the State can properly and humanely carry out Mr. Hines’s execution.”
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