(The Center Square) – Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday he will uphold the death sentence of a man accused of killing three people in Memphis in 1994.
Tony Von Carruthers is scheduled to be executed on Thursday at 10 a.m. CDT. He was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother, Delois Anderson and Frederick Tucker, whose bodies were found in a Memphis cemetery.
Several groups gathered in Nashville on Monday and delivered a petition with more than 130,000 signatures to Lee’s office asking him to stop Carruthers’ execution.
“After deliberate consideration of Tony Von Carruthers’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the state of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” Lee said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging Carruthers’ execution in court. The lawsuit said there is no evidence linking Carruthers to the crime.
“We are still fighting in court for forensic testing that could prove Tony’s innocence, but time is running out,” said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project.
Carruthers is the first Tennessee execution scheduled in 2026.
Three executions were announced by the Tennessee Supreme Court last year. Anthony Hines was convicted for the 1985 Kingston Springs murder of a woman and is scheduled to die on Aug. 13. Gary Wayne is one of two people charged in connection with the murders of two people in Sevier County. His uncle, James Dellinger, died while awaiting execution.
The execution date for Tennessee’s only woman on death row is set for Sept. 30. Christa Gail Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of a 19-year-old woman in Knoxville.
Lee issued a moratorium on executions in 2022 while the state studied its execution protocols. Three people were put to death in 2025 when executions resumed.
