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US lawyers say man on death row could be executed with expired lethal drugs

Al Jazeera · · 885 words · By The Associated Press
Death Penalty Logistics Government Transparency Cruel and Unusual Punishment
open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-lawyers-say-man-on-death-row-could-b…

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Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

15 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 5
info Single Source 4
check_circle Corroborated 4
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“Tony Carruthers’s lawyers twice asked the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) last month whether it had secured the appropriate drugs for his execution date and to ensure the drugs had not expired.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The claim is explicitly stated in one web search result (Al Jazeera/US lawyers say...), but other results only mention the general case of Tony Carruthers without confirming the specific requests regarding drug expiration dates last month.
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web search NEUTRAL — Tony Carruthers’s lawyers twice asked the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) last month whether it had secured the appropriate drugs for his execution date and to ensure the drugs had not expir…
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-lawyers-say-man-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Tony Von Carruthers has been on death row for some three decades now (Pictures: Tennessee Department of Correction/Getty Images).Carruthers has until May 21 to convince the state to stop the execution…
https://metro.co.uk/2026/04/20/evidence-a-death-row-prisoner…
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web search NEUTRAL — Attorneys for Tony Carruthers, a Tennessee man convicted in 1994 for the murders of his mother and two others, plan to ask Gov. Bill Lee for clemency in his case, citing “egregious injustices” — inclu…
https://www.wvlt.tv/2026/05/05/attorneys-tony-carruthers-man…
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“Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (Al Jazeera, Metro News, and another court record report) confirm Carruthers was sentenced to death for the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker.
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web search NEUTRAL — Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-lawyers-say-man-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Tony Carruthers was sentenced to death for kidnapping Marcellos Anderson, his mother, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker in 1994. The two male victims were shot, and all three were then buried aliv…
https://metro.co.uk/2026/04/20/evidence-a-death-row-prisoner…
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web search NEUTRAL — According to court records, Carruthers was convicted for the 1994 first-degree murders of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker. He was given a death sentence for each of those conv…
https://www.wvlt.tv/2026/05/05/attorneys-tony-carruthers-man…
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“In South Carolina, executions were on hold for 12 years while the state struggled to obtain drugs.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm a long pause in South Carolina executions due to drug procurement issues, with durations cited as 'over 12 years' and '13 years'.
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web search NEUTRAL — South Carolina told a court Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, it has obtained drugs needed to carry out lethal injections and is ready to perform the state’s first execution in over 12 years.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-carolina-inmates-want-execu…
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web search NEUTRAL — Bryant chose to die by firing squad instead of lethal injection or the electric chair. He is the seventh person put to death by South Carolina in 14 months after the state had a 13-year pause in execu…
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/south-carolina-man-executed-f…
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web search NEUTRAL — South Carolina, once one of the busiest states for executions, paused capital punishment for 13 years due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs. Pharmaceutical companies refused to sell the…
https://manninglive.com/stories/south-carolina-schedules-exe…
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“Tennessee has argued in court that its shield extends to revealing expiration dates.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided web search results for Tennessee and drug expiration are generic or unrelated to the specific legal argument regarding the state's 'shield' over expiration dates.
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web search NEUTRAL — Location of Tennessee within the United States.Tennessee is geographically, culturally, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East, Middle, and West Tennessee. Nashville is the state's cap…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee
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web search NEUTRAL — The drugs have to be kept secure and at the proper humidity and temperature so they don’t degrade. Luckily, the country has rarely needed to tap into many of the drugs, but this means they often reach…
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-myth-of-drug-expirati…
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web search NEUTRAL — Additionally, the law will specify what will be considered the property of a drug dealer. The legislative framework will be improved, allowing for the confiscation of real estate owned by drug dealers…
https://jam-news.net/georgia-tightens-drug-policy-for-surviv…
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“In 2017, Arkansas’s then-Governor Asa Hutchinson issued death warrants for eight prisoners on the state’s death row in an effort to beat the clock on a batch of lethal injection drugs that were set to expire.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources (Al Jazeera, Jack Saarela's blog, and another news report) confirm Governor Asa Hutchinson issued death warrants for eight prisoners in 2017 to use drugs before they expired.
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web search NEUTRAL — In 2017, Arkansas’s then-Governor Asa Hutchinson issued death warrants for eight prisoners on the state’s death row in an effort to beat the clock on a batch of lethal injection drugs that were set to…
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-lawyers-say-man-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson’s plan for eight executions over an 11-day period was criticized as a ‘conveyor belt’ of death. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images. McKesson’s intervention has had a d…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/arkansas-execu…
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web search NEUTRAL — The expiry date lit a fire under Governor Asa Hutchinson. In order to execute as many inmates on Arkansas’ death row as possible before the deadline, he signed death warrants for eight of them, nearly…
https://jacksaarelaspennyformythoughts.wordpress.com/2017/05…
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“The state executed four of the men, but four others were granted stays.”
CORROBORATED
Al Jazeera explicitly states four were executed and four granted stays. Other sources confirm the execution of Ledell Lee and others in that specific window, corroborating the sequence of events.
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web search NEUTRAL — In 2017, Arkansas’s then-Governor Asa Hutchinson issued death warrants for eight prisoners on the state’s death row in an effort to beat the clock on a batch of lethal injection drugs that were set to…
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-lawyers-say-man-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Ledell Lee on April 20, 2017. (Image credit: Arkansas Department of Correction via AP).Subscribe to our newsletter. The state of Arkansas executed Ledell Lee on Thursday night, four minutes before the…
https://theweek.com/articles/693808/why-arkansas-execution-c…
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web search NEUTRAL — The executions in the death chamber at the Cummings Unit, a state prison southwest of Pine Bluff, came four days after the state put to death another killer, Ledell Lee. A fourth condemned man, Kennet…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/us/arkansas-executions.ht…
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“A group of Texas inmates in 2023 unsuccessfully tried to stop the state from using drugs they alleged were expired and unsafe.”
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The search results for Texas provided general state information (Wikipedia, Texas.gov) and did not contain any information regarding 2023 legal attempts by inmates to block expired drugs.
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web search NEUTRAL — Texas has a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering 268,596 square miles (695,660 km 2) and with an estimated population of over 31.7 million residents in 2025, [10] it is the secon…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas
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web search NEUTRAL — Explore the official website of the State of Texas. We'll help you find the government services, information, and resources you need.
https://www.texas.gov/
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web search NEUTRAL — Texas lies in the south-central region of the United States. It shares borders with four U.S. states: Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, Louisiana to the east, and New Mexico to the wes…
https://ontheworldmap.com/usa/state/texas/
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“The Federal Defender Services of Idaho told a federal judge that prison officials apparently failed to even check the expiration date of the execution drugs before obtaining a death warrant for Creech in October 2024.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The search results provided for this claim were generic definitions of 'Federal' and 'IRS' and did not mention Thomas Creech or the Federal Defender Services of Idaho.
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web search NEUTRAL — The terms "Federal" and "National" in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government; for instance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Oceanic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Government_of_the_Unit…
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web search NEUTRAL — Pay your taxes. Get your refund status. Find IRS forms and answers to tax questions. We help you understand and meet your federal tax responsibilities.
https://www.irs.gov/
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web search NEUTRAL — Shop Apparel Shop Bags & Cases It's Federal Season Whatever pursuit drives you, make this Federal Season your best.
https://www.federalpremium.com/
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“Nine days later, the drugs were returned to the supplier because they were expired, according to court documents.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results for this claim.
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“A new Idaho law has changed the state’s primary execution method to firing squad in part because of the difficulty of getting lethal injection drugs.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results for this claim.
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“In 2022, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Governor Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed the state’s lethal injection drugs were not being properly tested for purity and potency.”
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“Executions were on hold for two years to allow for an independent investigation into the problems.”
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“The state attorney general’s office was also forced to concede in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs at the time “incorrectly testified” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.”
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“Tennessee released a new lethal injection process in December 2024 and restarted executions in 2025.”
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“When Byron Black was executed by lethal injection in August, he said he was “ hurting so bad”.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.