Tennessee to lift ban on executions

By SHEILA BURKE Staff Writer - THE TENNESSEAN

Tennessee is ready to resume executions under new rules it released Monday, using a three-drug lethal injection method opponents say is still inhumane and unconstitutional.

Gov. Phil Bredesen will lift a 90-day moratorium on executions on Wednesday. Philip Workman, convicted of killing a Memphis police officer, is scheduled to die May 9.

"It's essentially the same protocol as before, with a little window dressing," Nashville attorney Brad MacLean said.

Among the complaints MacLean and other defense lawyers have about the execution method is the use of three chemicals to kill inmates.

Last week a medical review of dozens of executions found that the drugs used to execute prisoners in the U.S. sometimes fail to work as intended, causing inmates to die painful deaths in which the condemned suffocate and feel pain but are immobilized and unable to say they are suffering.

The state's new death penalty protocols use the three chemicals. The procedures do not address the state's other method of execution, the electric chair.

MacLean pointed out that one of the chemicals in the lethal injections has been banned from use to euthanize animals.

The new protocol lays out in much greater detail the process of administering the injection.

Department of Correction Commissioner George Little, who was asked by the governor to revise the written procedures governing executions, declined to comment on the criticism.

Little expressed confidence in the use of the three-drug method of execution in a letter he sent to Bredesen along with the revised protocols.

"After a rigorous consideration of our options and consultation with the review committee, I have directed the continued use of a three-chemical lethal injection protocol," Little said in the letter.

"The decision was based on this type of protocol being a proven method of execution. Tennessee and 29 other jurisdictions have used this general method. It has been found to be humane when properly administered."

He added that the Department of Correction has "significantly improved the documentation" of procedures using the three chemicals.

Governor saw problems

When the governor declared a 90-day moratorium on executions in Tennessee in February, he cited problems with the written directives he called a "cut and paste job." One of the problems the governor pointed out was that the previous protocols didn't give the dosage amounts for the chemicals used in the injection process.

The Associated Press found that Tennessee's previous manual for executing prisoners mixed injection instructions with those used for the electric chair. Before a lethal injection, the manual of execution instructed prison officials to shave the condemned inmate's head and to have a fire extinguisher nearby, preparations used for electrocutions.

The new written procedures probably will be challenged in court before Workman can be put to death. One of the complaints from lawyers and others was that Department of Correction officials wouldn't tell people how they were revising the written instructions, drawing criticism that the process was "done in the dark."

Anti-death penalty advocates and defense lawyers are angry that they didn't have more time to see what the changes would be.

"I think for them to say, 'We're going to give people a week to look at these protocols before we use them in an execution' borders on irresponsibility," said Alex Wiesendanger of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. "But I think even more disturbing is the fact that the American Bar Association just told us that Tennessee's death penalty system is completely broken."

Last week the ABA, which neither supports nor opposes the death penalty, called on Bredesen to extend the moratorium past Wednesday, saying Tennessee's system of justice is flawed. A report found too many blacks on death row, bad lawyers working on death penalty cases and good attorneys who faltered under excessive caseloads.

The governor, through his press secretary, responded that he respects the ABA but had no intention of extending the moratorium.

On Monday night, he reaffirmed his desire to end the moratorium.

"As this completes the work that I asked the commissioner to undertake, the moratorium on executions will expire on schedule on May 2, 2007," Bredesen wrote in a statement.

Since 1960, two inmates have been put to death in Tennessee, both by injection. Death row inmates convicted before 1999 get to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair.