Tennessee Governor Issues Reprieve to Philip Workman

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has issued a tem­po­rary reprieve for death row inmate Philip Workman, who was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on September 24^th. Noting that there is an ongo­ing fed­er­al crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion that may shed light on Workman’s case, Bredesen stat­ed, ​“So long as there are out­stand­ing issues that may be relat­ed to this case, the only prop­er thing to do is to wait until those ques­tions have been answered. I am a sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, but com­mit­ted that it be car­ried out in a judi­cious man­ner.” The reprieve was made at the request of Attorney General Paul Summers and post­pones Workman’s exe­cu­tion until after January 15^th, 2004. (Press Release from the Governor’s Communications Office, September 15, 2003) Five jurors from Workman’s orig­i­nal tri­al signed affi­davits stat­ing they would not have sup­port­ed a death sen­tence in light of evi­dence that his tri­al was taint­ed by false eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny and inad­e­quate coun­sel. See DPIC’s Press Release.