Court allows Workman execution to proceed

AP via KnoxNews ^ | 5/7/7

[SmithL]

NASHVILLE — Death row inmate Philip Workman's execution is back on schedule after being halted last week over concerns about Tennessee's revised execution method.

In an opinion issued Monday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati vacated a temporary restraining order handed down Friday by a U.S. District Court judge in Nashville.

Workman's execution is scheduled for Wednesday at 1 a.m. CDT.

In the 2-1 majority opinion, Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton wrote that Workman has come within days of being executed five previous times and never before challenged the state's three-drug lethal injection procedures.

Workman's lawyers claimed that Tennessee's new death penalty guidelines unveiled last week could still cause unconstitutional pain and suffering, but similar arguments have failed in the higher courts, Sutton wrote.

"The Supreme Court has never invalidated a state's chosen method of execution. No court has invalidated the three-drug protocol used by Tennessee (and 28 other jurisdictions)," Sutton wrote. "Several state and federal courts have upheld this same three-drug protocol (including the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2005)."

The three-member 6th Circuit panel also denied Workman a stay of execution on Friday based on his claims that he was convicted on perjured testimony and that the state withheld evidence that would have established Workman's innocence.

Workman, 53, who was convicted for the 1981 shooting death of Memphis Police Lt. Ronald Oliver, robbed a Wendy's restaurant and then got into a gun battle with police. He wounded another officer and shot at a third, but he now contends Oliver was accidentally shot by another officer.

Attorneys for Workman have requested for a review of the three-member panel's denial for a stay.

Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said on Monday afternoon that Workman has not yet been moved to death watch status at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

[SmithL]

Follow-up to this morning's story: State appeals Workman execution delay

[SmithL]

Sutton, Jeffrey S.

Born 1960 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Nominated by George W. Bush on January 7, 2003, to a seat vacated by David A. Nelson; Confirmed by the Senate on April 29, 2003, and received commission on May 5, 2003.

Education:
Williams College, B.A., 1983

Ohio State University College of Law, LL.B., 1990

Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Thomas Meskill, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1990-1991
Law clerk, Associate Justices Lewis Powell and Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court of the United States, 1991-1992
Private practice, Columbus, Ohio, 1992-1995, 1998-2003
Adjunct professor of law, Ohio State University College of Law, 1994-
State solicitor, Ohio, 1995-1998

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male

---

NOTE: This Judge wrote the majority opinion, overturning Clinton appointee, Todd Campbell.

[dynachrome]

All these appeals about “lethal injection” are pure BS. I have been under the surgeons’s knife several times and the stuff hits you and you are out. Add the lethal stuff after that for an execution and you won’t feel a thing!

[ConservaTexan]

(in tune)
Na-na, na-nah. Na-na, na-nah. Hey-ey-ey. Good-bye.

[SF Republican]

the stuff hits you and you are out - LOL true, I remember the nurse saying count backwards from 100... I said, 100 and woke up a day later.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Let’s hope they get on with it, in a “workmanlike” manner.

[Dacus943]

"unconstitutional pain and suffering"

Little help here!

What part of the Constitution covers this?

[enraged]

Just shoot him between the eyes and be done with it.

[mkjessup]

The problem I have with all of this wailing and shrieking about ‘unconstitutional pain and suffering’ is that the death penalty SHOULD be all about pain, suffering, agony, *excruciating* punishment, why?

Because the more that society makes the death penalty nice and comfy, nothing worse than going to sleep and never waking up, the less it will act as a deterrent to crime.

There is a reason for the electric chair, the gas chamber, the firing squad (used to be Utah’s method), the hangman’s noose, and that is to strike terror into the condemned, fear into anyone who might entertain the thought of committing a like crime, and send a message that horrific crimes can and will bring a horrific punishment.

Sanitizing the death penalty is counterproductive to the concept of making the punishment fit the crime. If some SOB murders an innocent person in cold blood, they deserve no consideration whatsoever, and should be dispatched from this planet ASAP, and without a nice painlessly injected nighty-nite and a breath mint beforehand.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

The 8th Amendment ban against Cruel and Unusual punishment.

This amendment is open to intepretation. It is a bit like a 2nd Amendment for the anti-capital punishment crowd.

I think their opinion on it is worth respecting. It is good to show respect for an alternative interpretation even if you disagree with it.

This is a limitation on the state’s power just as the 2nd limits the state from infringement on the right to carry arms.

Exactly where the limit is, is subject to debate and has changed over time.

The Wikipedia article is remarkably balanced on the issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_and_unusual_punishment