Tennessee to execute inmate who represented himself at trial without physical evidence

Tennessee is scheduled on Thursday to execute a death row inmate whose attorneys argue there was no physical evidence linking him to the crimes, that he is mentally incompetent, and that the state may be using expired lethal injection drugs.

Tony Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker in Memphis.

Carruthers represented himself at trial, frequently complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them. He was convicted primarily on the testimony of individuals who claimed to have heard him confess to or discuss the crimes.

In the days before the scheduled execution, protesters rallied in support of Carruthers and appealed to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to call off the execution, planned for Thursday morning at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The Rev. Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said petitions received more than 100,000 signatures.

Carruthers and his attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have raised strong objections to his conviction, including that DNA and fingerprint evidence from the crime scene remain untested. Family members and his attorneys say he has a mental illness.

Earlier this week, a federal judge denied Carruthers’ request to delay his execution.

If the execution proceeds as scheduled, Carruthers will be the first person forced to represent himself at trial to be executed in more than a century, according to the clemency petition.

Carruthers’ attorneys argued that “paranoia and delusions” prevented him from cooperating with court-appointed counsel, but the trial judge viewed this behavior as willful.

The Tennessee Supreme Court later stated that Carruthers’ actions before the trial jury were offensive and self-destructive, but that the situation was of his own making.

In the petition, Carruthers’ attorneys argued that he was sentenced to death because a medical examiner testified that the victims were buried alive, providing excruciating detail to the jury.

The examiner later withdrew that claim, and subsequent experts have said it was false.

Carruthers’ attorneys have also sought to show he is incompetent to be executed, arguing that he believes the government is bluffing about executing him to coerce him into accepting a plea deal that exists only in his mind.

According to court filings, Carruthers believes the government can avoid paying him millions of dollars it owes him if he accepts the nonexistent plea. He is convinced his own attorneys are part of a conspiracy against him and refuses to speak with them.

But authorities say Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal drug trade in his Memphis neighborhood and that Marcellos Anderson was a rival drug dealer.

Tennessee began accelerating executions last year after a three-year pause prompted by the discovery that the state was not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency. Those same concerns overshadow Carruthers’ execution.

His attorneys have twice asked the Tennessee Department of Correction whether it had secured appropriate drugs for his execution date and demanded assurance the drugs had not expired. Assistant Attorney General John Ayers did not directly answer but said the department would comply with its lethal injection protocol. Tennessee has a history of problems with its execution drugs.

In 2022, inmate Oscar Smith came within minutes of execution before Governor Lee issued a reprieve because the drugs were not tested. In 2024, Tennessee introduced a new protocol and restarted executions in 2025.