State And Federal Info
Philip Workman
Workman was executed in 2007 for the death of police officer Ronald Oliver, though later ballistics evidence suggested that the bullet that killed Oliver did not match Workman’s gun, and may have come from the gun of another officer on the scene.
Pervis Payne
Payne’s case resulted in the Supreme Court decision Payne v. Tennessee (1991), which allowed victim impact statements to be heard in the sentencing phase of a trial. Payne was removed from death row in 2021 on evidence of his intellectual disability.
Paul Gregory House
Charges against House were dropped in 2009 after he spent 23 years on death row and his case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gaile Owens
Governor Phil Bredesen commuted her sentence to life in 2010 after she served for over 20 years for hiring someone to kill her husband. Owens was willing to plead guilty for a life sentence at trial, but because her co-defendant would not, the plea bargain was rescinded.
In 1965, Governor Frank Clement commuted the sentences of everyone on Tennessee’s death row after an abolition bill was defeated by one vote.
Tennessee had a study committee in 2007-2009 that recommended changes to the current structure, but not abolition.
Executive moratorium in 2007 for 90 days while lethal injection protocol was examined.
In 1965, Tennessee’s Senate voted to repeal the death penalty and repeal only lost in the House by one vote.
Tennessee was one of the first four states to exclude those with intellectual disabilities from the death penalty, doing so in 1990.
Tennessee only resumed executing people in 2000. The state went from 1960-2000 with no executions.
In 1838, Tennessee became the first state to give juries discretion in sentencing those convicted of murder, turning away from the traditional mandatory death sentence.
During the Progressive era (1890’s-1920’s), Tennessee was the only former Confederate state to legislatively abolish execution for murder. The 1915 bill was vetoed by the governor, but went into effect because his veto came too late. In 1919, the death penalty was reinstated.
Tennessee was the last Southern state to resume executions in the modern era.
Secrecy
May 02, 2023
Bills to alter the state’s method of execution and to make the execution process more transparent failed in Tennessee’s legislature this year as its session concluded. In an effort to facilitate executions bogged down by the state’s problems with …
Intellectual Disability
Feb 24, 2023
In an op-ed in The Tennessean, Dr. Keith Caruso, President of the Tennessee Psychiatric Association, shared the reasons behind the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) opposition to capital punishment for those with severe mental illness. …
New Voices
Feb 08, 2023
“Speaking as a business leader, a proud, lifetime Tennessean and a human being, it’s time for the state to abolish capital punishment,” wrote Mac Bartine, CEO of Knoxville-based tech company Smartria, in an op-ed for Knox News. Bartine de…
Executions Overview
Jan 17, 2023
Tennessee will not resume executions until it fixes systemic problems with the administration of its execution protocol, Governor Bill Lee has announced. “It’s a very important issue that has to be done correctly,…
Lethal Injection
Jan 04, 2023
An independent investigation into Tennessee’s execution practices has found that the state repeatedly failed to follow its own protocols in performing seven executions and preparing for an eighth between 2018 and 2022. Gov…
Public Opinion
Dec 06, 2022
In a year that featured massive campaign advertising attempting to portray legal reformers as responsible for increases in violent crime, candidates committed to criminal legal reform or who promised to continue statewide moratoria on executions p…
Intellectual Disability
Nov 17, 2022
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office attempted to preserve a trial court ruling denying Byron Black’s intellectual disability claim, arguing before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) on November 8. …
Innocence
Aug 09, 2022
Tennessee voters have issued a stunning rebuke to controversial Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich (pictured), ousting her from office after an eleven-year tenure marred by charges of racism and m…
Executions Overview
Jun 23, 2022
Tennessee executions could be on hold for years, as the state conducts an independent investigation into widespread non-compliance with its execution protocol and litigates the constitutionality of revisions expected to be made to…
Intellectual Disability
Jun 08, 2022
A Tennessee death-row prisoner who county prosecutors agree is intellectually disabled is appealing a trial judge’s refusal to vacate his death sentence under a law designed to provide condemned prisoners a mechanism to enforce th…
