Tennessee Is About to Execute a Man
Without Testing the Evidence

Tony Carruthers is scheduled to die on May 21. There is untested DNA and fingerprint evidence at the scene that does not match him. The state has not explained why it has never been compared to another suspect.

Whiskey Leaks / Sons of Liberty

May 15, 2026

Tony Carruthers has been on Tennessee's death row for decades. He was convicted without a single piece of physical evidence linking him to the crime. The case against him rested entirely on informant testimony, including one informant who was paid by the state, later recanted, and whose payment the state actively concealed from the jury for years.

He was also forced to represent himself at trial. The proceeding was so compromised that his co-defendant was granted a new trial. If the state of Tennessee executes Tony Carruthers on May 21, he will be the first person in nearly a century put to death in the United States after being denied legal counsel at trial.

That alone should be enough to stop this. It is not the whole of it.

The documented record No physical evidence was ever presented linking Tony to the crime. Informant testimony formed the entirety of the state's case. One informant was paid. The state denied this for years. That informant later recanted. The jury never heard the full truth. Fingerprints and DNA recovered from the scene do not match Tony. They have never been compared to a suspect identified by his co-defendant. Additional forensic evidence from the scene has never been tested at all. Tony's co-defendant was granted a new trial because the original proceedings were so flawed. Tony was not.

The ACLU is calling on Tennessee to halt the execution and conduct the forensic testing before an irreversible decision is made. That is not a radical ask. It is the minimum standard of a system that claims to value the difference between guilt and innocence.

If the state executes Tony Carruthers without running these tests, it will not be because the evidence was unavailable. It will be because it chose not to look.

The Sons of Liberty is asking its family to sign the ACLU petition. It takes two minutes. The deadline is real. The execution is scheduled for six days from now, and the window for intervention is closing. If you have ever argued that the state does not have the right to kill the innocent, this is the moment to act on that.

Action Required

Sign the Petition.
Halt the Execution.

Tell Tennessee to stop the execution of Tony Carruthers and test the forensic evidence before it is too late to matter.

Execution date: May 21, 2026 Sign Now — ACLU Petition