A Tennessee death row inmate who was strapped to a gurney for 90 minutes as executioners failed repeatedly to find a vein has been granted a one-year reprieve, sparking a new wave of questions about a conviction that has been under scrutiny for decades
Tony von Kurthers, 56, was scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 21, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Instead, he became only the ninth person in modern American history to survive an execution attempt.
According to his attorney, Maria Deliberado, medical personnel punctured Kurthers more than a dozen times over an hour and a half, trying to establish an intravenous line. She watched him wince and groan in the execution chamber. The curtain never opened for witnesses.
Governor Bill Lee issued the reprieve without public explanation. Deliberado broke down in tears when she learned the news during a press conference. “That’s amazing,” she said.
“I’m so grateful.”
Kurthers was convicted in 1996 of the triple murder of Marcelos Anderson, 21, his mother Deoy Anderson, 43, and Marcelos’s friend Frederick Tucker, 17. Their bodies were found buried alive in Rose Hill Cemetery in Memphis.
The original medical examiner testified that all three victims were alive when they were placed beneath an existing casket under dirt and plywood. Marcelos had been shot three times, one bullet severing his spinal cord. Deoy died from asphyxiation with dirt in her mouth.
Kurthers, who had documented mental health issues, represented himself at trial after dismissing six court-appointed attorneys. The state argued he orchestrated the killings to take over a drug territory. A key witness, Albert Shaw, said Kurthers arranged the murders
But in August 2024, prosecutors disclosed for the first time that Shaw was a paid confidential government informant. That fact was never revealed to the defense or the jury. Shaw’s credibility was central to the prosecution’s case.
Kurthers never challenged the “buried alive” testimony. An appeals court later ruled that two defendants should have been tried separately. Co-defendant James Montgomery received a new trial, took a plea deal, and was released from prison in 2015
Montgomery later gave a statement saying Kurthers was not involved, that he carried out the crimes himself and dispatched a man named Ronnie Irving. Irving was killed in 2002, but his fingerprints and DNA remain on file. No comparison has ever been made.
Fingerprints from the abduction site do not match Kurthers, Montgomery, or anyone charged. Six prints remain unidentified after three decades. An unidentified male DNA profile on the binding fabric has never been tested against Irving.
In 2005, a forensic expert testified that the victims were already dead before burial. The original medical examiner later backed away from his buried alive conclusion. Two original jurors signed sworn statements saying they would not have supported the death penalty had they known.
Kurthers arrived at the execution chamber at 10:00 a. m. Behind a curtain, medical personnel established a primary IV line.
Then they tried to establish a backup line. They couldn’t find a suitable vein. They tried again and again.
A court filing later alleged that the physician overseeing the execution had not placed a central line in over 13 years. The ACLU called the attempt “botched and torturous.” Kurthers’s attorneys filed emergency motions arguing cruel and unusual punishment.
Witnesses in the viewing room sat in the dark for nearly 90 minutes. Nashville reporter Steven Hail said the experience was “disorienting and deeply unsettling.” No one outside knew what was happening until officials called it off.
Kurthers was taken off the gurney and returned to death row. The one-year reprieve means Tennessee cannot attempt to execute him again until at least May 2027. Of the eight previous survivors, four were later executed on a second attempt; others died on death row.
The ACLU continues to fight for DNA testing in federal court. The unmatched fingerprints and untested DNA profile remain in evidence. A mental competency appeal is still working through the courts.
Governor Lee has offered no explanation for his decision.
The prosecution maintains the case was lawfully prosecuted, the jury verdict sound, and the appeals process exhaustive. Three people were murdered in 1994. Their families have carried that weight for more than 30 years.
That is not in question.
What remains in question is whether Tony von Kurthers is the man who should answer for those deaths. A jury said yes. Courts have upheld that verdict at every level.
But a key witness was a paid informant whose status was hidden for three decades.
The central medical finding used to secure the death sentence was later contradicted by the experts who could have testified at trial. Physical evidence has never been tested. The trial was conducted by a man his own attorneys later described as wholly unfit to represent himself.
His co-defendant went home over a decade ago. Tony Kurthers is still on death row. In May 2027, Tennessee may try again.
Some see justice delayed by a system working exactly as designed—exhaustive, thorough, final only when every avenue is closed
Others see a man who has survived both 30 years on death row and the execution itself, while evidence that could answer the most basic question in a murder trial has never been tested. Both positions exist. Both have weight.
The question now is: If the DNA and fingerprint evidence still exists, and it does, should the state test it before they try again? That answer may determine whether Tony Kurthers lives or dies. The clock is ticking.
