They Injected Me…” Tony Carruthers Speaks After Failed Execution

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Exactly how did this happen?

[00:00:05]>> Talk about the B execution or how I got the death row.

[00:00:07]>> We're going to do everything in our power to help.

[00:00:09]>> Thank you, bro. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:00:10]Thank you.

[00:00:11]>> Tonight on the Dancer Project, we're live on the line with Tony Kurthers.

[00:00:16]Tony Von Kurthers. You just went through a lot and this is gaining national media attention. Um, first of all, how are you feeling in this very moment?

[00:00:27]I got chest pain and I got weakness in my right arm and I got a a coordination problem with balance.

[00:00:36]>> Now, according to the media and everything that we're seeing, >> according to the media and everything we're seeing right now, there's claims that you were set for lethal injection.

[00:00:49]This transpired last Thursday, I believe.

[00:00:51]>> Mhm.

[00:00:53]And they're claiming that they couldn't find a vein and they failed.

[00:00:58]>> But what's your side of the story on exactly what went on?

[00:01:04]>> They had trouble finding the vein. They poked me illegally three times in one arm and then they actually got a vein in the right arm and then they went to the left arm and and and they got it in. that the the poison cuz they do some some kind of test to see if it'll flow and the poison wouldn't flow. So, I guess they use a saline and it wouldn't flow. So, they came out the left arm, went in the feet and it wouldn't flow. Went in the left feet, it wouldn't flow. And the doctor asked anybody in there, "Do anybody know in here know how to go through the juggler?"

[00:01:43]>> And then when he did that, he said, "Hey, my name, Mr. My name is uh uh Dr. >> Fowler >> told me who his name was and uh and then nobody responded to it. He said uh we're going to do a central and then the lawyer objected say you're not qualified to do a central. He said yes I am. Then a warden stepped up. They let him do his business doc your business. And uh he went in my chest and and when it went in my chest it hurt so bad. It was excruciating. It actually kind of made me scream probably about five or six times. Not not a scream, but a a a grunt. And uh and then eventually he gave up and said, "I can't get a central." And then he once he came out the the chest, blood was he came out the chest and then he went back to the No, he came up to my right shoulder right away from the uh from the central and then they got a line right there.

[00:02:44]And then they did a check said they were flowing and then they just stood back for about 10 minutes. Everybody I guess I was supposed to nod out or something.

[00:02:54]So when I didn't nod out, they got a phone call and the war said they said stop it. So they got a video recording in there. So apparently the people at either at the governor's office or TDOC central office seen that the the the poison wasn't flowing. So they stopped it.

[00:03:12]>> Exactly. What went through your mind?

[00:03:15]>> What went through your mind the moment they tell you this execution is not happening?

[00:03:22]>> In the middle of it, my my lawyer said, "Tony, God works in mysterious ways."

[00:03:26]Cuz it wasn't working. And uh so I was believing in God basically the whole 32 years I've been here. So, I never thought it'd get to that point anyway because I was framed by this guy in Shelby County who was a paid FBI informant and we had been hoping that Donald Trump would intervene and get the Todd Blanch to give Governor Bill Lee the FBI file to show that the informant had told the FBI that he had been framing people for law enforcement. So, I was thinking that Bill Lee was going to step in and stop it and ask for because we had a campaign on social media. Kim Kardashian spoke out. We was hoping that he the B was going to get the FBI file and see that the FBI informant then told the people that he framed me and several other people. So I never thought it would get to that point. But of course when you at that point you at that point but I never doubted. I actually kind of waited on that phone to ring but it rang after like seven minutes of the poison not affecting me. But it actually did affect me but it didn't kill me put it. So, what are you dealing with now as far as ailments and pain?

[00:04:35]>> Uh, I got a a weakness in my right hand and I got chest pain and I got uh I got a balance problem when I walk.

[00:04:47]>> When you were sitting in that chair, >> it was giving me pain medication.

[00:04:51]>> Yeah. When you were sitting in that chair, I'd imagine that you thought nothing other than these are your final moments.

[00:05:04]How wild was it?

[00:05:06]>> Oh, never.

[00:05:07]>> To know that, you know, God really was in your corner.

[00:05:14]>> God put his wings over me and and sheltered me the whole time. I was never in fear. I I've never been in fear the whole time. I've been here, I always felt like God was going to intervene. He put a calmness over me that everybody I talked to for the last 90 days, Tony, you are really a strong person. This is amazing. I've been calm the whole time and and God showed up.

[00:05:40]>> What was it like with >> did what God does.

[00:05:44]>> What was it like when Kim Kardashian decided to help represent you and speak up?

[00:05:52]and ask for more testing.

[00:05:54]>> I had been waiting on I had been waiting on her for some months. I actually been writing about four years and then it end up that I end up getting an attorney with the ACLU who was the mentor to the woman who actually uh is the mentor to Kim. And then after two months, uh, the mentor to Kim took a phone call for me on a Thursday. And then the next Monday, my attorney came to see me and said, "Tony, we got good news. Kim is going to speak out." And that was like probably 17, 18 days before the execution date.

[00:06:36]I actually been looking for her for a while to come forward. But she gave it all she had and when they stopped execution, she gave God the glory. She said God intervene.

[00:06:49]She know she did what she could.

[00:06:51]>> But I think she's still going to try to reach out to Donald Trump to get this FBI file from Todd Blanch. When every I come out, you'll probably see me walk out these prison doors after an attempt to murder me on a conspiracy to violate my civil rights for 32 years. The informant that framed me was never around me. It's made up by law enforcement and they just paying him to commit the purge reform. His name is Alfredo Bernard Shaw.

[00:07:18]>> Wow.

[00:07:19]>> And I think >> Go ahead. I think the last post that Kim Kardashian made was about getting Alfredo Shaw FBI file number 938188 EA7.

[00:07:32]And if Todd Blanch is listening to this podcast or anybody at Department of Justice under Robertson versus me of 592 Fed 3 at 7:38 prosecutors have an individual duty to get favorable evidence. People working on behalf of the government including police and turn it over to the defendant or to his attorney. They got an individual duty to give me that file.

[00:07:57]And I'm hoping that uh Donald Trump hear this podcast or his acting attorney general and and get his FBI side of Governor Bill Lee.

[00:08:06]>> Have you personally spoken to Kim Kardashian or anybody on her legal team since the execution attempt?

[00:08:15]>> I've never spoken to Kim Kardashian.

[00:08:17]This is being arranged. Like I said, I I wrote a house eight time and then I stopped. But I seen it on a podcast that she was on. A guy in Oklahoma wrote her 30 times. I thought I was gonna run off.

[00:08:29]I've never spoken to her. I just get messages from her mentor. I can tell you who her mentor is. Her mentor is Jessica Jackson at the reform and and Jessica speaks to my attorney who is an attorney at ACAU in Florida.

[00:08:44]I've never spoken to Kim Kardashian now. Exactly.

[00:08:48]>> Helping me on the mail that I sent to her. Yeah.

[00:08:52]>> No, go ahead. You could you could continue on.

[00:08:56]Yeah, she she's assisting me on the the information I mail to her house and on the advisement of her mentor Jessica Jackson at the reform alliance and my attorney at the ACA. She's never spoken to me.

[00:09:10]>> No, >> I just need her platform to get the story out. She don't have to talk to me.

[00:09:14]>> Yeah.

[00:09:15]>> She just need to try to get the the the the world's attention on her platform which she does for everybody.

[00:09:22]You just made a guy born in Oklahoma who would been on death watch three times.

[00:09:26]>> Yeah, she's been doing a lot of work to help people out.

[00:09:30]>> Yeah, she's been use her platform. Well, >> she she's awesome. So, she don't she don't have to talk to you to help you.

[00:09:38]If she speak out, you being helped well.

[00:09:42]When she when she put my story out, it's like the algorithm don't go out. It's viral for the last seven days. and my reaching out to y'all to make sure her light don't go out.

[00:09:55]>> Absolutely. And we're gonna do our best to get that out.

[00:09:57]>> She'll post something.

[00:10:00]>> Yeah. Please tag her on her Instagram and all her channel. Say, "Kim, please ask Donald Trump to give Governor Bill Lee this FBI file number 938188 EA7 of Alfredo Shaw." See that he confessed to the FBI that he was Go ahead.

[00:10:17]>> You mentioned that There wasn't enough testing and with this with this with the DNA with the fingerprints.

[00:10:28]What exactly do you want tested now?

[00:10:34]>> The the DNA was this. In 2006, TBI did their own independent DNA testing and it revealed two suspects.

[00:10:47]But the state and another attorney that was representing my codefendant who end up taking alpha plea concealed it from me. They didn't give it to me. Well, he took alpha plea and the state concealed it. Then I got new attorneys when I got to the federal level and then they got the DNA and they concealed it from me.

[00:11:04]When I got in 2012, I filed a proate petition to reopen my postconviction and the judge alleged I just sat on this evidence for 6 years from 2006 to 2012.

[00:11:15]So I was never allowed to present the evidence alleging that I sat on it, but it was concealed from me. So I went all the way through federal level and and didn't get no relief cuz the evidence wasn't raised in state court in my case.

[00:11:29]So they came out with in 2021, they came out with a fingerprints analysis petition. I mean a a statue where at any time if if some fingerprints were were uh lifted in a case in Tennessee, you can go and have these fingerprints lifted and tested if any new technology come out and you'll know. So when I filed a prosay fingerprint petition, I added the DNA testing to that showing that I never got uh a review on that.

[00:12:01]So, we had a hearing set for January the 6th. And on in that hearing, I had some new attorneys cuz the last attorney quit on some more uh destructive uh negligence that they did to me. And what they did, the Chevy County Justice Review Unit put me in their unit and gave me the organized crime file to inform me. You have 12 days 12 year 12 months to file a petition on that. And they waited at 13 months. And on the 13 month, the state said execution date. So when I went to court, they took and put the organized crime file in there with the fingerprints in the DNA, basically sabotaging the hearing. The judge said, "Why are you doing that?" I'm like, "Mr. Cles, why you ambushing me with this?

[00:12:41]You should have filed this in a really court." So I was denied to raise the fingerprint and the DNA petition. So I basically kind of got rid of these attorney, reached out to a friend who end up getting ACLU and ACLU came in and started suing the state saying that Mr. credits never had a hearing under Houston versus Waller to raise these issues and the state denied him his due process. So that's the fingerprint and the DNA evidence that I never got a hearing on and for 20 30 years they alleged they didn't even have fingerprints but they actually did. So I never got a hearing, never got a review on it to get in release. So the state were being sued to allow me to >> You have one minute remaining >> on the fingerprints and DNA evidence.

[00:13:26]Also, when the attorneys sued, they saying, "Not only do we want to get a hearing on the evidence from TBI, we want to test the DNA of the finger scrapings under the victims that had never been tested >> because they assumed that the victims had to be in some kind of struggle and that the scrapings under their nail would prove who these suspects were."

[00:13:48]And they never would let us test it.

[00:13:52]>> I know you got >> So, I've been denied due process in the conspiracy to Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:56]>> What time is it? Yeah, I call.

[00:13:58]>> Yeah, you could just call me right back.

[00:14:00]>> I got 13 minutes. I got 13.

[00:14:02]>> All right.

[00:14:02]>> Yeah, I got 13 minutes to dial out.

[00:14:05]>> Let me go ahead and hang up and and and uh start so you can finish if you need another answer to this fingerprints and DNA. Yeah.

[00:14:11]>> So, I basically been denied review or or hearing on on this evidence that was suppressed from me >> and the state was being sued, but the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the sixth circuit, none of them would listen to the ACLU. in the end.

[00:14:26]>> Now, I I did read that they say that the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed that you were responsible for this situation. Do you feel like that was enough for them and they're just going to like do you feel like there's corruption? What do you feel that's actually going on here?

[00:14:44]>> I'm responsible for a medical condition, a medical problem from a licensed doctor who's asking people can do anybody in here know how to go in a juggler. I'm responsible for that. Is that what you're saying? I'm responsible for >> No, they're claiming that you're responsible for the situation in the past and then that that's why they continued on sentencing you.

[00:15:04]>> I'm going to tell you I was I'm the only man in America been forced to represent itself in a capital case. In a capital case, you have to have two attorneys. I couldn't represent myself or I wanted to. And they pretend like I was causing a delay tactic. People stay in county jails from 4 to 10 years to go to trial.

[00:15:20]People stay on app 30 years. It was no delay tactic. You took me to trial in 22 months. On trial day, they offered me 10 years. And 6 months before trial, they offered me 25 years. So, they trying to force me to trial because I won't comp a a fabricated manufactured probable cause.

[00:15:40]The state didn't have probable cause to arrest me. So, they paid an informant to just pretend like you was around and pretend like he confessed to you and and made me stand trial. where I was able to prove that informant was lying before the trial. And once I was able to prove that, that's when it got chaotic and all the attorneys trying to get me to come out and then they start pretending like, I'm threatening them. So, it was a pressure tactic. If you don't come out, we make you go to trial by yourself.

[00:16:08]>> In a capital case, you have to have two attorneys. So the Supreme Court is trying to steal cover for the judge who made me represent myself to make it seem like uh it was no malfeas on the part of the judiciary system and it was you cannot represent yourself in a tamper case. You have to have two death penalty qualified attorneys. So I didn't cause the frame up or the manifest injustice in my trial. It was done by the system.

[00:16:39]If you get a copy of my audio recording from 1999, the first round of direct appeal, the the Supreme Court just said, "This smells calculated." Yes, it's calculated. I've got to put Mr. Shaw on the stand. And that's what they might be saying. Tony put Mr. Shaw on the stand.

[00:16:57]He sabotaged the trial. But this is the guy that you took to the grand jury when you didn't have a problem because arrest me. And if you get the crime stop report, it says that without this information, Mr. corrupts would be released. I have to put him up. So, Supreme Court might be alleging that I sabotaged the trial by putting up a FBI informant who've been lying and framing people who have told the FBI he lied and framing people. So, I don't know what they mean by I call this. But a defendant in America is entitled to a fair trial. It's not a fair trial when one man is representing himself in a capital case. when the standard and the law, you have to have two attorneys. So, I don't know what they mean. I don't know which lie that they hanging on to to justify trying to kill me on a conspiracy out of Shelby County that's been proven to be a conspiracy.

[00:17:52]If you Google Alfredo Sean talks to the media on YouTube, you'll listen to the informant tell the city of Memphis 60 days before my trial that he was paid to make up these lies.

[00:18:05]And that's a federal crime to pay witnesses/informers with taxpayer dollars to commit perjury in any courthouse, state or federal. And it at the video before the trial. So I didn't I'm not responsible for it and I'm not responsible for the ir irregularities, the the the corruption that went on with this trial. It's a lie by the state. I actually I've been framed by the state. the state of Tennessee frame me and all the justice covering it up.

[00:18:38]I can show you what to cover up real clearly. In 2002, I was on postconviction and the in and they had a special sitting judge named Walter Kirks from Nashville.

[00:18:50]He ordered Cherby County, the Memphis Police Department, the Sheriff Department, FBI to turn over Alfredo Bernan Shaw status as an informant when he was allegedly around Mr. gorillas.

[00:19:00]The prosecutor who is now a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal, John Willer Campbell said, "We don't know of Mr. Shaw being an informant for anybody." I talked to the trial prosecutor. If you look on the law book, he was in the law book from September 13th, 2002, 3 months before they even got the court ordering them to turn his status over to me.

[00:19:20]>> A a a defendant has a right to a fair trial. And that means impeachment evidence to prove or the the the veracity or reliability of a witness/informment.

[00:19:31]That means his file. So they knew that evidence would reverse my trial. For 32 years, they still hadn't turned his FBI file, nor his full sheriff sheriff department file, which is bad number 2022, nor his Memphis Police Department organized crime file, which is 1069.

[00:19:48]They only gave us bits and pieces out of it. No. And they still and I was entitled to that evidence 32 years ago to prove to the jury that this man is not credible. But in the organized crime file, they showed us he stole $475 from the organized crime unit and he's still on the payroll 20 in 2026. I was supposed to be able to use that evidence to show that this man is alive thief and they paying him to commit perjury. So it's a real injustice to conceal FBI informants, state count, and informant file. Every defendant in America is entitled to use that evidence to impeach the credibility of an informant and I've been denied that for 32 years.

[00:20:28]I still don't got it.

[00:20:30]>> Hasach and I still don't have, >> you know, I know we just got a few minutes left. I wanted to ask, has anybody in the White House reached out to you to talk about this situation at all since this execution attempt?

[00:20:44]>> No. But I'm asking millions of Americans to go on Donald Trump social page between 3:00 and 5:30 in the morning.

[00:20:51]He's on there personally with his phone in his hand and ask Donald Trump, "Are you aware of the execution of Mr. Kers and the suppression of the FBI, the sheriff department, and organized crime file that this man as American citizen to impeach the credibility of a FBI informant?" The answer is no. Nobody from the White House. But I'm begging somebody to get the White House attention so Donald Trump can ask Bill Lee, please investigate these FBI files of Alfredo Shaw. Please look at the video of Alfredo Shaw on YouTube confessing to the the the city of Memphis at that time that he was paid to make this up.

[00:21:33]>> Now, in our final two minutes, my final question to you is this.

[00:21:37]If this ends up being your only chance to speak to the world, what do you want them to hear?

[00:21:46]I really want the world to to make enough noise that this injustice won't go unheard from the White House all the way to the Vatican and all the way up here to Nashville to Governor Bill Lee's office. I want everybody on social media on their phones calling Donald Trump and Bill Lee and asking would y'all please investigate the purged testimony of Alfredo Bernard Shaw, FBI informant number 93188 EA7. Please y'all make some noise on social media on true social to Donald Trump and B and ask them to investigate. If this my last word to get out and please push the hashtag >> absolutely today free Tony von Kur brothers today or hash they paid Alfredo Shaw to now Tony Kurthers.

[00:22:44]>> Okay and I do have those that you sent to me. Uh lastly, after this uh failed attempt, >> I heard you mention God, >> but mentally, >> are you angry with everything that went on, or do you feel like this brought you closer to God?

[00:23:01]>> Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:23:04]I'm angry. I've been here for 32 years eating eating straight trash.

[00:23:10]And this informant confessed to framing me 32 years ago. and they was court ordered to turn over his files 24 years ago and everybody allowing this judge to sit on the court of criminal appeal knowing he was supposed to be disbarred in 2002. My attorney helped him cover up his lie. I didn't find out that he lied and said that after saw one informant until 2018 16 years later. Yes, I'm mad.

[00:23:37]>> Everybody in America is entitled to a fair trial and that is impeachment evidence. And when the state know that they have impeachment evidence of FBI informant and don't turn it over for 32 years, it makes you mad.

[00:23:51]I mean, you even got his badge numbers and they still won't turn over the file.

[00:23:57]>> Are you optimistic now?

[00:23:58]>> I'm mad.

[00:24:00]I'm mad. Yes. I I can't tell you I'm not mad or bitter. I'm entitled to justice.

[00:24:06]I'm entitled to a fair trial. I'm entitled to prove my innocence. I'm entitled to prove what the crimes stopper form said without this information from Alfredo Shaw. They don't put his name. They said this CI Mr. Coronas would be released and they won't give me the exculpatory evidence to prove that I would have been released. And Alfredo Shaw didn't pay no taxes on none of the money earned for 43 years framing people. They won't give it to me. They won't give it to B. They won't give it to the clemency board.

[00:24:36]They won't give it to the court of criminal appeal. They won't give it to the sixth circuit. All these justice know that evidence been suppressed and they just rubber stamped it and denied me a pill and and put me on that table and God put his hand over me and it didn't work.

[00:24:53]>> I'm injured, but the poison didn't kill me.

[00:24:56]>> Are you optimistic today?

[00:24:59]>> I'm optimistic. Yes, I was optimistic when I was on the table. I never gave up when I'm calling and reaching out and writing Kim Kardashian. I didn't give up. When I'm writing the just reform line when I reached out to you, I'm optimistic.

[00:25:16]>> I believe that God is going to deliver me from being destroyed.

[00:25:21]>> Yes. Absolutely.

[00:25:24]>> And and >> justice will prevail.

[00:25:26]>> Listen, things like that that happen, you don't really get stories like this too often. So I do want to tell you in this moment the only thing you can do is stay positive.

[00:25:41]Keep your mindset focused on expecting that call that a difference is going to be made and somebody's going to step in and we're going to do everything on our end to make sure we get this message out. We'll do everything on our end to speak to the right parties to make sure that they have an opportunity to review everything.

[00:26:02]But you got to hold you got to hold your head up in there.

[00:26:05]>> It's only a matter of time. This story is getting national attention now.

[00:26:09]>> Your voice is heard.

[00:26:11]>> Um after this phone call, we'll do what we can do and we'll hopefully revisit have another conversation with you on different terms.

[00:26:20]>> Thank you. Thank you. On different terms is that >> Yeah. Thank you. God bless you and and God bless your whole crew and and and God bless all the people that pushing this story out. God bless y'all.

[00:26:33]>> God bless you. We'll speak soon.

[00:26:35]>> Yeah. God is merciful. He merciful. He He'll be mercy on everybody if they just keep pushing, bro.

[00:26:43]>> Absolutely.

[00:26:43]>> Thank you so much.

[00:26:44]>> Thank you. We'll speak soon.