The execution of Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines is scheduled for Thursday, and Governor Bill Lee confirmed it will proceed under Tennessee’s revised lethal injection protocol that was approved in 2024.
Hines (pictured above) was convicted and sentenced in 1986 by a Cheatham County jury of the robbery, rape, and murder of Katherine Jean Jenkins, who was working as a motel maid at a Kingston Springs hotel at the time of the attack. A second jury imposed the same sentence in 1989.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit previously granted him relief in 2020, based on claims of ineffective representation from his attorneys, but the Supreme Court overturned the decision and reinstated the death sentence in an 8-1 decision released in 2021.
More than three decades after the murder of Jenkins, the execution is scheduled less than three months after Tennessee was unable to execute another death row inmate, Tony Carruthers, who a jury sentenced to death for the 1994 kidnapping and murder of three people in Memphis.
After a physician was unable to complete the lethal injection using the protocol approved in 2024, which required a primary and backup intravenous (IV) injection line to be established, Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve, sparking questions from Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Days after lawmakers who support the death penalty sent Lee a letter requesting clarification, the governor confirmed there would be no moratorium or review of the current protocol.
State Senator Ferrel Haile (R-Gallatin), who previously signed the letter sent to Lee, later reportedly revealed that Carruthers was dehydrated at the time he was scheduled to be executed.
“We have found out more information since then. It wasn’t the protocol as much as it was other factors that came into play, that the inmate was dehydrated and … wasn’t in a position to deal with that in that point in time,” said Haile earlier this month, according to The Tennessee Lookout. “I feel pretty comfortable with where we’ve gotten to.”
In remarks reported by the media last week, Lee said death penalty cases are “very difficult situations,” but said it is his responsibility as a public official “to make sure that the law is carried out” when juries choose the death penalty.
Since the new protocol was established in 2024, Tennessee has successfully executed three people. If Hines’ execution is successful, he will be the 17th person executed in Tennessee since 2000, and the fourth since executions resumed last year.
Hines is notably among those who sued Tennessee over its lethal injection protocol in 2025, claiming Tennessee’s new method of administering death penalties requires gray market drugs that can cause excruciating pain to those sentenced to die. The lawsuit remains ongoing.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
