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Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Tony Carruthers recently survived a lethal injection attempt – the latest man to endure a failed execution

In the past 80 years, at least nine men have survived execution attempts. Bernd Obermann/Getty Images

Tennessee set out to execute Tony Carruthers on May 21, 2026, but he lived to tell about it.

Carruthers, who was sentenced to death for a 1994 triple murder, survived his date with death when the execution team members could find only one suitable vein in which to secure an IV, but not, as USA Today reports, the “backup line, which is required under the state’s lethal injection protocol.”

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