NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee faith leaders called Friday for Gov. Bill Lee to halt the scheduled Aug. 13 execution of Darryl Hines, arguing that the state’s botched May 21 execution attempt of Tony Carruthers raises serious questions about Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol and warrants a full review before any additional executions proceed. The appeal came during a news conference organized by Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Rev. Stacy Rector, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister and executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Carruthers was convicted and sentenced to death 30 years ago in Shelby County without any physical evidence tying him to the crime. Carruthers was forced to represent himself at his capital trial, Rector said, and his execution moved forward despite the state’s refusal to test fingerprint and DNA evidence from the crime scene.
On May 21, Rector recounted, Carruthers was strapped to a gurney at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, where he spent 90 minutes bleeding and in pain during a failed attempt to take his life before Gov. Lee called off the execution. Carruthers returned to his cell alive but seriously wounded, Rector said.
When reporters later asked whether the state should pause the Hines execution to review the protocol, Gov. Lee said he believed “everything about the protocol of the death penalty was carried out appropriately,” according to Rector.
“Governor Lee’s response represents a moral failure that is not reflective of the people of our state,” Rector said. She added the faith leaders joined thousands of Tennesseans, including a group of Republican state senators and a Republican state representative, in calling on Gov. Lee to stop the execution.
“Stopping executions for a full review to ensure this never happens again is not about one’s position on the death penalty,” Rector said. “It is about responsible government.”
Rev. Timothy Holton, a United Methodist pastor and chaplain to Tennessee’s death row, also spoke at the news conference. He told the gathering that he is a surviving family member of four murder victims and spent 20 years as a nurse before entering ministry.
Drawing on the account of Carruthers’ attorney, Holton described how a state-contracted physician took over after a second intravenous line could not be placed. The physician attempted and failed to access veins in Carruthers’ feet and neck before announcing he would place a central line in Carruthers’ chest, Holton said. This occurred during a roughly three-minute attempt in which Carruthers bled and moaned before the physician announced he was unsuccessful.
The governor’s office called off the execution approximately 90 minutes after the process began, Holton said.
“When an execution goes catastrophically wrong as this one did, the answer cannot be to simply move to the next one,” Holton said. “A government that cannot acknowledge the harm caused by a botched execution has no more moral credibility to carry out the next one.”
Rev. Kelly X, senior pastor of the Village Church in Madison, Tenn., and director of Racial Justice Ministries at the Spirit & Truth Justice Center, framed the appeal around the commandment to love one’s neighbor. The trauma of the failed execution extended to correctional staff, witnesses and the victim’s loved ones, X said.
“Love does not ignore suffering,” X said. “Love does not dismiss trauma. Love calls us to tell the truth when harm has been done, and love has the courage to stop before more harm is inflicted. Governor Lee has an opportunity to live out the faith he professes.”
Pastor Kevin Riggs of Franklin Community Church placed the Carruthers execution attempt within a broader pattern of failed executions. The May 2022 execution of Oscar Franklin Smith was halted after the drug protocol was mismanaged, Riggs said, prompting Lee to pause executions and order an independent review. The review found that the same oversight had occurred in the previous seven executions.
Riggs said Byron Black, who was executed in August 2025, suffered excruciating pain after the state refused to deactivate his implanted defibrillator, which an autopsy confirmed. There have been significant problems in all four executions since the independent review, Riggs said, and a lawsuit filed by nine death row inmates in early 2025 challenging the state’s drug protocol has not yet been heard.
Riggs also noted Hines has suffered two strokes, has lost the use of the left side of his body and is confined to a hospital bed in the prison infirmary.
“If there was ever a case for a compassionate clemency, this is it,” he said. “How is justice served by removing Mr. Hines from a hospital bed and then strapping him to a gurney to kill him?”
“Governor Lee, please stop Mr. Hines’ execution and all scheduled executions until the lawsuit can be heard and a thorough review of what happened to Mr. Carruthers has been completed,” Riggs said.
Rector closed the news conference by expressing hope that Gov. Lee would prayerfully consider issuing a reprieve for Hines. He also expressed hope that the pending lawsuit would be heard and that the protocol would be thoroughly reviewed before any future executions take place.
Hines is currently scheduled to be executed on Aug. 13. His attorneys have separately asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to stay the execution unless the Tennessee Department of Correction replaces the physician involved in the failed execution attempt of Carruthers, arguing that the state should not proceed until questions surrounding the lethal injection protocol have been fully addressed.
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