UPDATE: On May 21st at 1pm, Gov. Bill Lee granted Tony Carruthers a one-year temporary reprieve after failed lethal injection attempts.
Tony Carruthers, a 57-year-old Black man, is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee, USA on May 21, 2026. He was one of three men charged in a triple murder in Memphis in 1994. He was forced to represent himself by the judge, in violation of international safeguards in death penalty cases, due to his behavior towards appointed counsel. His appeal lawyers attribute this behavior to his serious mental disability and maintain that he was incompetent either to stand trial or to defend himself and is incompetent to be executed.
Send a message to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and urge him to stop this execution and to grant Tony Carruthers clemency.
Here is how you can take action:
- Send a message to Governor Bill Lee by using his office’s web contact form
- Write a letter to Governor Bill Lee
- Call Governor Bill Lee’s Office
- Post on social media using this graphic
Scroll down to Step 1 and Step 2 to access the full Urgent Action appeal, sample letter, and phone contact.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: May 21, 2026
Dear Governor,
Please stop the May 21, 2026, execution of Tony Carruthers. After the judge lost patience with Mr. Carruthers’ conduct toward a succession of lawyers, he was forced to represent himself at his 1996 trial and sentencing. Under international law, self-representation must not be imposed on a defendant; a person cannot be deemed to have forfeited their right to a lawyer as a punishment for misconduct. Carrying out a death sentence imposed through unfair proceedings would violate the right to life guaranteed under international human rights law.
Tony Carruthers’ self-representation was deemed so prejudicial to his co-defendant – who was tried alongside him and was also convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death – that the co-defendant was granted a new trial. He was allowed to plead to lesser charges, sentenced to 27 years in prison, and released in 2015. Tony Carruthers was clearly prejudiced by his forced self-representation given his lack of competence and his conduct in court, yet his convictions and death sentence have been upheld. Today, as far as is known, he is set to become the first person in the USA in more than a century to be executed after being forced to represent himself at trial.
Tony Carruthers has a severe mental illness (disability) with symptoms including paranoid delusions and distorted thought processes. He also has serious brain damage. Although he is said to be aware of his conviction and impending execution, he lacks a rational understanding of them, raising the prospect of an unconstitutional execution that also violates international law. Other aspects of his case presented in the clemency petition before you raise additional serious concerns. I urge you to grant clemency and commute his death sentence.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
Additional Resources and Ways to Act
- SHARE THIS GRAPHIC ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT
- join the death penalty action network
- Learn how amnesty works to abolish the Death Penalty
- Read more about USA
- Join the Young Responders Network
- rEPORT ANY ADDITIONAL ACTIONS YOU TOOK ON THIS UA HERE
- See our tips for writing effective letters and emails.
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Extend your impact with these opportunities to fight for the human rights of more individuals at risk around the world.
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