Emergency application · Capital case
Lethal injection safety
Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines v. Tennessee
What did the Court do?
The Court denied the request on August 13, 2026 and refused to halt the execution.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case.
What's being asked
Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, a Tennessee prisoner under a death sentence, asked the Supreme Court to pause his execution. He requested the pause while the Court considered whether to hear his case. Hines says Tennessee plans to use an execution physician he considers unqualified, and his age and recent strokes could complicate IV placement.
What the Court did
The Court refused to pause Hines’s execution and denied his request for a stay (a temporary pause). It also refused to hear his case; it denied his petition for Supreme Court review. The Court did not publish how the justices voted.
What it means
The emergency ruling does not decide who wins the underlying dispute; the Tennessee Supreme Court, Middle Division’s ruling remains in place. The docket lists no related case on the main legal question, and the Court set no argument.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 26A175. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.