Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says no changes to capital punishment after botched execution

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told reporters in Knoxville on Tuesday that there will be no changes to the protocol for capital punishment in the state following the botched execution attempt of death row inmate Tony Carruthers on May 21.

In May, the Republican governor suspended Carruthers’ execution for one year after the medical team failed to find a vein when trying to set up the backup IV line of lethal drugs. They tried to set up the IV line for more than an hour.

“The Department of Corrections did exactly what they were supposed to,” Lee told reporters . “I decided to suspend the execution. I have the authority to do that. I’m the only one who can.”

“Given the circumstances of not being able to find a vein, I made that decision,” the governor added. “But the protocol itself and the process for the death penalty in this state — which is the law of Tennessee that the people have decided — but the protocol itself still stands, as it should.”

After the botched execution, eight Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to the governor, which urged him to review the death penalty protocol, according to the Tennessee Lookout . The letter called the incident a failure “to carry a lawful…