Yesterday, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty resumed its work after several months of inactivity because of the legislative session. The Committee divided into three sub-committees in order to attempt to cover the enormous amounts of material which must be examined by year's end. The three sub-committees are: Accuracy, Fairness, and Promptness.

The Promptness sub-committee (whose title is a bit misleading) met for the first time yesterday to begin with a broad overview of the issues which it is to address including: the needs of surviving victims of murder and execution; direct appeal and post conviction review proceedings; mental retardation, mental illness, and the death penalty; and geographic, economic, and racial discrimination in the death penalty system.

Pictures from the meeting can be seen by clicking HERE.

In the meeting yesterday, Verna Wyatt, Director of You Have the Power, a victims' advocacy organization showed the film, "The Other Side of Death Row," which interviewed several family members of those who were murdered in Tennessee and the painful journey which they have endured waiting for executions to be carried out.

What I repeatedly heard in that video was the torment that these families go through over years and years of appeals. In fact, two of the family members stated that if it was going to take so long, why didn't the state just give these guys life without parole? Another recurring theme was that "closure" is an elusive concept that no sentence can ever bring. This video highlighted for me that the death penalty system does not serve victims' who agonize for years as cases are in legal limbo, and in fact, adds to their suffering.

The Tennessee state Treasurer also spoke to the victim's compensation program and the financial help that is available to crime victims' or families of crime victims. This program is comparable to many state programs and does good work in addressing some of the needs of victims. However, as with all state programs, money is tight. I couldn't help but wonder how much more assistance could be given victims if the millions of dollars we spend to seek the death penalty (often resulting in a life sentences anyway) could be used to supplement this needed compensation fund.

Elizabeth Ryan of the Attorney Generals' office testified concerning the direct appeal and post conviction process, though with significant gaps of information which the committee still needs to address. Specifically, the question which continued to be asked by Representative Dunn, "where does the process get so delayed?" Ryan conceded that sometimes it is the state who delays and sometimes the defense. However, though many assume that defendants plug up the process with appeals, when talking to attorneys and inmates alike, I have discovered that it is often the courts themselves who are slow to act, sometimes sitting on cases for years before they render a decision. Limiting appeals is not the answer to dealing with the delays, particularly considering that even with a lengthy appeals process, 129 people have been released from death rows nationally when evidence of their innocence emerged, sometimes after 20 years on death row.

Finally, Dr. Pam Auble testified about her work with many of the inmates on Tennessee's death row and how mental illness and brain injury affect that population of people. Very significantly, she discussed the population of inmates (12 of the 49 with whom she has worked) who have severe mental illness with psychotic features and who can't appreciate reality. Many of these inmates have long histories of such mental illness and have been diagnosed years before coming to death row.

The case of former Tennessee death row inmate, Richard Taylor, is an example of the problems with attempting to execute those with severe mental illness. Besides the fact that such executions are immoral since these inmates cannot appreciate the reality of their crimes, seeking their executions is extremely time consuming and wasteful. Richard Taylor, who had been diagnosed with severe mental illness, received a death sentence for killing a correctional officer while off of his medication. After 20 years of litigation, Taylor recently accepted a life sentence rather than enduring a new trial. Imagine the years of agony the victims' family would have been spared as well as the millions of dollars to the state if a life sentence had be given to this very sick man in the first place.

TCASK will continue to keep you informed of these Committee meetings and hope that you will consider attending. There is so much work to be done, and I applaud the committee members for their commitment to this process. As citizens, we must inform our legislators about this work and demand that serious reform be a result. Reforms to the system will reduce the numbers of people sentenced to death and demonstrate to citizens that we do not need the death penalty to protect society and hold others accountable. In fact, the death penalty may do far more harm to all of us.

Read Tennessean article here

Yesterday, Ohio Judge James Burge ruled that the state's method of putting a prisoner to death is unconstitutional because two of the three drugs used for the injection can cause "an agonizing and painful death." The decision means that Ohio must stop using the two risky drugs, pancuronium bromide (pavulon), a paralytic which has been outlawed by veterinarians, as well as potassium chloride, which stops the heart and can cause excruciating pain if the inmate is not properly anesthetized.

The Judge ordered that the state use only a single, anesthetic drug. State officials were reviewing the decision in order to determine if they will appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Tennessee uses the same drug cocktail in its current protocol, which has also been successfully challenged in Federal Court by death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison. In the Harbison case, Judge Aleta Trauger issued a blistering opinion finding that the Tennessee Department of Correction was “deliberately indifferent” about the risks of the lethal injection protocol. The state filed an appeal, and the Sixth Circuit stayed Harbison's execution scheduled for the fall of 2007.

Though the U.S. Supreme Court in the recent Baze vs. Rees decision did not find Kentucky's current protocol to be unconstitutional, Tennessee's protocol is slightly different with findings in the trial court specific to Tennessee, and therefore, is still being litigated.

The Ohio Judge's ruling only reaffirmed what many of us already know: there is indeed a substantial risk of excruciating pain an suffering with the continued use of this three drug cocktail which absolutely violates one's constitutional right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment.

This issue is not one which will be going away anytime soon as long as the state continues to seek a "humane" way to take a person's life.

How much time and money are we willing to spend in deciding how to kill people when the more pressing question is: Why do we kill people who kill people to demonstrate that killing people is wrong?

Read more about the decision here.

Earlier today in Maynardville at the Union County Court House, bail was set at $500,000 for Paul House. House has been assigned a public attorney and there will be another hearing on June 27 to entertain arguments from the defense to reduce the bail amount. House will remain at DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville.

Read this article from Saturday's Tennessean about the bail hearing by clicking HERE (excerpt below).

"His mother, Joyce House, surmised that the state would not want the expense of driving and taking care of an inmate who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. She thought there was a chance he'd make bail.

Last night Rev. Joseph Ingle spoke about the re-release of his book “Last Rights” and personally signed copies. The talk, at Davis Kidd Booksellers, was attended by over 40 people and was covered by CSPAN. “Last Rights” tells 13 stories of 13 different death row inmates that Rev. Ingle counseled. All were executed.

Pictures from the talk can be found HERE.

Through “Last Rights” Rev. Ingle accomplishes a difficult mission—showing the world that those on death row are human beings, fellow “children of God.” Ingle does not attempt to ignore the crimes of which these 13 men and women were convicted. He instead shows us that they are not the monsters we so readily objectify them to be. At the talk, Rev. Ingle read excerpts from his book. One excerpt dealt with a man who saw Rev. Ingle in a fatherly light. “I felt like a father figure to him. He was always trying to make me proud, constantly telling me of his love for sports. He said that he’d remain strong and that he wanted the others on death row to know he was strong.” Rev. Ingle then told us that this man had an IQ of approximately 60. “He wasn’t aware of the gravity of the situation. The day of his execution he told us that he’d see us in a couple of days. He was a child in a man’s body.”

More on “Last Rights” can be found HERE.

When talking about his experiences, he noted that through his work he has met some of the finest individuals. I too can attest to that statement. This work is difficult and is oftentimes painful. But strife brings out the best in us. When this fight is over we’ll be able to celebrate the sacrifices of people like Rev. Ingle who have made the abolition of the death penalty and ministering to the condemned the work of their lives. Rev. Ingle put it best when describing the folks he met when counseling a particular death row inmate. “The people I have worked with are woven from the same cloth. We’re bound together by seams and stitches.”