Lawyers, Advocates Seek Halt to Execution of Stephen West in Tennessee

Advocates from a vari­ety of back­grounds are urg­ing Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to stop the August 15, 2019 exe­cu­tion of Stephen West (pic­tured), say­ing that West did not com­mit the mur­der and urg­ing the gov­er­nor not to exe­cute a man who is severe­ly men­tal­ly ill. [UPDATE: Governor Lee denied clemen­cy and West was exe­cut­ed on August 15.]

In a July clemen­cy peti­tion that is pend­ing before the gov­er­nor, West’s lawyers argue for mer­cy based upon his inno­cence of mur­der and his debil­i­tat­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. Though they con­cede that West was present at the mur­ders of Wanda Romines and her daugh­ter, Sheila Romines, and that he raped Sheila, West’s lawyers main­tain that his co-defen­dant, Ronnie Martin, fatal­ly stabbed the vic­tims. The peti­tion says that because of the chron­ic extreme abuse and trau­ma he expe­ri­enced as a child, ​“Steve was not psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly equipped to deal with the ter­ri­ble sit­u­a­tion he found him­self in” and dis­as­so­ci­at­ed when he saw Martin killing the women. 

The clemen­cy peti­tion asks what it calls “[a]n impor­tant ques­tion” — ​“if Steve did not intend for either vic­tim to be killed, how could he just stand by and watch while Martin did? The answer to this ques­tion,” the peti­tion sug­gests, ​“lies in Steve’s own trag­ic back­ground.” The peti­tion describes the relent­less abuse and neglect West endured, which includ­ed his moth­er beat­ing him so hard with a broom that it snapped, his par­ents deny­ing him food, and ongo­ing beat­ings that result­ed in his ankles being bro­ken at least sev­en times. The extreme trau­ma, the peti­tion says, caused or exac­er­bat­ed West’s severe men­tal ill­ness­es, includ­ing schiz­o­phre­nia and post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der. West’s par­ents retained a lawyer to defend him at tri­al, but instruct­ed coun­sel not to dis­cuss or present evi­dence relat­ing to his fam­i­ly back­ground. As a result, his jury nev­er heard this evidence. 

The clemen­cy plea has received sup­port from a Vanderbilt law and psy­chi­a­try pro­fes­sor, four great-great-grand­daugh­ters of Tennessee Gov. Albert Houston Roberts, and religious groups. 

In an August 9 op-ed for The Tennessean, Vanderbilt University law and psy­chi­a­try pro­fes­sor Christopher Slobogin argues that West’s case exem­pli­fies why exe­cut­ing peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness is ​“high­ly ques­tion­able.” Slobogin writes that West deserves seri­ous pun­ish­ment if he is not legal­ly insane, but, he says, ​“the death sen­tence is meant only for the tru­ly depraved, and West does not fit that cat­e­go­ry.” Slobogin also believes that West’s men­tal health has con­tin­ued to dete­ri­o­rate dur­ing his time on death row, and he may be com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed only as a result of heavy antipsy­chot­ic med­ica­tion. Courts in sev­er­al states have barred the forcible med­ica­tion of pris­on­ers to make them com­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion. But even where the pris­on­er has been med­icat­ed for oth­er rea­sons, Slobogin says, such syn­thet­ic com­pe­ten­cy presents an eth­i­cal dilem­ma. ​“An American Psychiatric Association Task Force has stat­ed that treat­ing a con­demned pris­on­er for the pur­pose of enabling an exe­cu­tion ​‘vio­lates the fun­da­men­tal eth­i­cal norms of the men­tal health pro­fes­sions,’” he writes. ​“While there is no indi­ca­tion that the state’s doc­tors are med­icat­ing West sole­ly to ensure his exe­cu­tion, or that their goal is any­thing oth­er than alle­vi­at­ing suf­fer­ing, the fact remains that their treat­ment may well be what is mak­ing exe­cu­tion pos­si­ble.” He believes that a com­mu­ta­tion from Gov. Lee is the best solution. 

In a sep­a­rate Tennessean op-ed, four great-great-grand­daugh­ters of for­mer Tennessee Gov. Albert Houston Roberts have urged Gov. Lee to halt all exe­cu­tions, begin­ning with West’s. They com­pare the governor’s clemen­cy pow­er to the deci­sion Governor Roberts made to rat­i­fy the 19^th Amendment, grant­i­ng women the right to vote — a choice that cost him polit­i­cal allies and re-elec­tion. ​“We know that stop­ping the killing of West will not be the one deci­sion that will fix our pris­ons and schools, but it will show our state that you are will­ing to act on prin­ci­ple when you have the chance by tak­ing the right step for this next few min­utes,” the women write. Their op-ed con­cludes with a per­son­al chal­lenge for the gov­er­nor: ​“Our great-great-grandfather’s lega­cy is a tes­ta­ment to his per­son­al and polit­i­cal courage,” they write. ​“Will you be remem­bered for being mer­ci­ful and just or for the num­ber of men you killed?” 

Religious advo­cates have also called on Lee — who stressed his Christian faith dur­ing his cam­paign for office — to stop exe­cu­tions, and Tennessee’s death-row pris­on­ers have asked him to vis­it death row and pray with them. In a one-sen­tence let­ter to Lee, 32 death-row pris­on­ers — includ­ing West — wrote: ​“We under­stand you are a man of faith and we would like to ask you to please come pray with us.” A group called March4Mercy, which includes prison vol­un­teers and activists, held a two-day vig­il out­side the governor’s office as they deliv­ered the let­ter. Evangelical author Shane Claiborne said, ​“Jesus said, ​‘when I was in prison you came and vis­it­ed me,’ and that is their request.” 

West’s clemen­cy peti­tion also high­lights his ded­i­ca­tion to his Christian faith, which has led him to have a pos­i­tive impact on oth­er pris­on­ers. He served on the board of Men of Valor, a prison min­istry that helps pris­on­ers reha­bil­i­tate them­selves. Lee said he is con­sid­er­ing West’s clemen­cy request. ​“These deci­sions are very dif­fi­cult and deserve a lot of delib­er­a­tion. And that’s what we’re doing. I wres­tle with this very much, because it’s a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion. But we’re in that process.”