By Gary Wayne Sutton Executions of Tennessee’s death row inmates are on hold as Gov. Bill Lee suspends all remaining executions in the state for 2026 following the failed execution of Christa Pike.
Sutton was convicted of the 1992 slayings of brother and sister Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam and spent three decades on death row.
Sutton was scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Dec. 3, but Lee ordered a moratorium on executions for the remainder of the year, meaning the sentence will not be carried out as planned.
Who is Gary Wayne Sutton?
Sutton, 61, was convicted in 1992, along with his uncle James Dellinger, of the murders of Tommy Griffin and Griffin’s sister, Connie Branam.
The pair were sentenced to life in prison and later sentenced to death for Griffin’s murder. Dellinger died in prison in 2023 at the age of 71.
On February 24, 1992, Griffin, 24, was found near a creek with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Five days later, Brannan, 34, was found inside her burned car. At the time, Griffin’s family reported there had been an ongoing feud between their family and Sutton’s family before the killing.
Sutton was found guilty in a trial that lasted two weeks but maintained his innocence.
Lee’s family has called for Sutton to be pardoned, and Sutton’s supporters argue there is no evidence linking him to the crimes.
The Justice for Gary Wayne Sutton website argued that the state relied on the testimony of a medical examiner who later lost his license and was discredited. “Gary had no motive to kill his close friend Tommy – something the government admitted during the trial,” they wrote.
Earlier this year, Sutton’s attorneys said Dellinger had been a controlling, older and abusive figure in Sutton’s life and remained so while they were incarcerated. She added that Sutton maintains his innocence and that his case is “riddled with errors.”
This year, a judge ordered state experts to evaluate Sutton as part of ongoing litigation over his claims that he is intellectually disabled. A hearing on the charge is scheduled for October 2026. According to a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
newsweek Sutton’s attorney was contacted via email for comment and is awaiting a response.
40 death row inmates in Tennessee
There are currently 40 people on death row in Tennessee, and three people on the list are scheduled to be executed in 2026.
One of them was Tony Carruthers, 59, who was convicted in 1994 of kidnapping and murdering three people.
The state attempted to execute Carruthers in May 2026, but failure to properly place an IV meant the execution was halted. Months later, Carruthers’ sister, Dr. Tonya Hervey, filed a complaint with the Tennessee Department of Health accusing Dr. Mark Walton-Fowler of medical malpractice and ethical violations. He took over after the executive spent about 40 minutes failing to establish a standard IV line.
The other is Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee. The state attempted to execute Pike on Sept. 30 after being convicted of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, but she survived two doses of pentobarbital and was taken to the hospital.
The only other inmate the state plans to execute in 2026 is Gary Sutton, with the remaining 37 inmates remaining on the list to be executed later.
Tennessee execution investigation
Lee said in a statement that he had ordered a “comprehensive third-party review to determine what exactly occurred during Pike’s failed execution on Wednesday.”
In 2022, Lee halted Oscar Smith’s scheduled execution shortly before it was due to what the state initially described as “technical oversight” in the preparation of lethal injection drugs.
Days later, Lee halted all remaining executions scheduled for 2022 and ordered an independent review of Tennessee’s execution procedures, led by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton.
The final report, released in December 2022, found that Tennessee repeatedly failed to comply with its execution protocols, including failing to perform required endotoxin testing of lethal injection drugs in multiple executions and planned executions since 2018.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections resumed executions in 2025 after completing a comprehensive review, revising procedures, replacing the previous three-drug approach with a new single-drug pentobarbital regimen and appointing new leadership to oversee the entire process.
Please contact Newsweek editors about this story: Tobias Majors and James Debens