Two Minutes in the Life of an Innocent Man Recently Freed from Death Row

MEMPHIS – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a motion in the Tennessee Supreme Court today seeking DNA testing that in the case of Tony Carruthers that could prove his innocence. The state plans to execute Mr. Carruthers on May 21 despite unmatched fingerprints and DNA evidence in his case that have never been compared to the most likely alternative suspect identified by Mr. Carruthers’ co-defendant. There has never been any physical evidence linking Mr. Carruthers to the crime and the case against him was built on testimony from jailhouse informants, widely known to be one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. One of the individuals responsible for the murders later stated that Mr. Carruthers was not involved and instead pointed investigators to another man, Ronnie Irving. Finally, within the last two years, the State Attorney finally admitted what it had successfully hid for three decades – that key State witness Alfredo Shaw was a paid career informant prior to, during, and after Mr. Carruthers trial.’ Meanwhile, there is unidentified DNA on evidence found with the victims that does not match Tony Carruthers and has never been compared to Mr. Irving. The motion filed today asks the court to order comparison of that unknown DNA to Irving and to permit testing of three additional items that have never been analyzed. These items were all found with the victims’ bodies and are likely to contain evidence pointing to the person who is actually responsible for the crime. “Before the state carries out an irreversible punishment, it must answer the most basic question: did they get the right person?” said Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “Tennessee has the forensic evidence that could help answer that question, and they must test it before it is too late. There is no justification for barreling towards an execution while DNA evidence that could prove who really committed this crime remains untested.” In addition to the DNA evidence, there are five fingerprints recovered from the crime scene that do not match Mr. Carruthers and remain unidentified. A separate motion seeking fingerprint testing that Mr. Carruthers filed pro se in September 2021 is still pending before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals at Jackson. Mr. Carruthers was forced to represent himself at trial after the court became frustrated with his repeated dismissal of appointed counsel, which was exclusively due to his longstanding and well-documented mental illness. He did not ask to represent himself and instead repeatedly requested an attorney. His self-representation was found to be so prejudicial to his co-defendant James Montgomery, entitling Mr. Montgomery to a new trial. Mr. Montgomery, who was initially sentenced to death was allowed to enter a plea to a reduced charge, sentenced to a term of years, and was released from prison in 2016. If executed, Mr. Carruthers would be the first person in nearly a century to be put to death after being forced to represent himself at trial.

As executions surged to their highest level in years, public support, jury verdicts, and new death sentences continued a historic decline—exposing a punishment sustained by political power, not public will.

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court upheld Florida’s law allowing non-unanimous juries to sentence people to death upon a vote of 8-4, meaning a person can be sentenced to death in the state even if a third of the jury votes for life. The court’s decision came in a pair of cases, Jackson v. Florida and Hunt v. Florida, brought by two men sentenced to death by non-unanimous juries. The American Civil Liberties Union represents Mr. Michael Jackson, who was sentenced to death in 2007, despite 4 jurors voting for a life sentence. In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court declared non-unanimous sentencings unconstitutional after a Supreme Court decision ruled that Florida’s capital sentencing statute violated the Sixth Amendment. For years, Mr. Jackson waited to be re-sentenced under the law of unanimity, but weeks before his long-awaited retrial, the Florida legislature reinstated non-unanimous juries, and he was sentenced to death by another 8-4 jury. “Allowing a death sentence by a divided jury betrays the founders’ vision of the jury as a cornerstone of democracy and a protection against government overreach,” said Megan Byrne, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “Non-unanimous juries increase the risk of wrongful convictions and can operate to silence the voices of jurors of color. Florida’s high court has made clear that the state values speed and finality over accuracy and justice. We will be asking the Supreme Court to review this decision and reaffirm that the Constitution provides the right to a fair trial and a unanimous jury when life is at stake.” Florida is one of only two states to allow divided juries to sentence people to death and has the most extreme law in the country. As Justice Labarga of the Florida Supreme Court acknowledged in his separate opinion, “the 8-4 threshold renders Florida the absolute outlier among states that impose the death penalty. Florida now has the lowest standard in the nation, requiring the fewest number of jurors to recommend the death penalty.” Florida legislators enacted the non-unanimity law in 2023 despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that unanimity is required for guilty verdicts in all cases where a defendant is charged with a serious offense. In that decision, the Supreme Court called out the racist origins of non-unanimity laws which states specifically designed to silence the voices of Black jurors. Non-unanimous sentencing schemes also heighten the risk of executing the innocent. Florida has had 30 exonerations from death row — the most capital exonerations of any state in the country. Of those, the vast majority (19) of exonerees were sentenced by non-unanimous juries. “More than 200 innocent people have been exonerated from death rows across America since 1976,” said Daniel Tilley, legal director of the ACLU of Florida. “Non-unanimous juries only amplify the risk that innocent people will be sentenced to death. Dissenting jurors often raise concerns about credibility, evidence, or mitigation, and non-unanimity allows someone to be sentenced to death despite unresolved doubt. When the stakes are life or death, we cannot afford to settle for anything less than what the Constitution promises.” Michael Hunt, the second man challenging non-unanimity, was arrested and charged with capital murder in 2018, when Florida law required the jury to be unanimous in any death recommendation. His trial was delayed until 2023, by which point the Florida legislature and courts had walked back the protection of unanimity. The jury convicted him unanimously, but voted only 10-2 for his death sentence. Had the jury issued this decision only six months earlier, Florida law would have required a life sentence. Read more about Mr. Jackson’s case here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/michael-jackson-v-state-of-florida

Tyler’s case shows how bias, fear, and discrimination drive wrongful convictions — and why confronting racial injustice in the legal system remains urgent today.