Execution Moratorium Ends

Governor Phil Bredesen announced last night that he will allow a three-month moratorium on state executions to expire tomorrow.

Concerns over the state’s lethal injection process prompted Governor Bredesen to issue a moratorium in February.

Last night, the Governor released a statement saying that Department of Correction Commissioner George Little had revised the death penalty protocols and the halt on executions would end as scheduled.

Under the revised rules, Little says the state’s process for carrying out executions has been updated to be more clear, concise and complete.

Anti-death penalty activists lobbied hard to extend the moratorium. Just yesterday, well-known author, Sister Helen Prejean called on the Governor to extend the timeout from capital punishment. Prejean authored the book Dead Man Walking, which became a movie by the same name.

Prejean calls herself the “death penalty nun,” and challenges that Tennessee residents don’t have the tolerance for capital punishment.

“And here you got Tennessee. Over 80 percent of the actual executions, thousand-plus, that have happened in this country, have happened in the slave states, the Southern states that practiced slavery. And Tennessee doesn’t fit the mold. Tennessee has had two executions. Look in comparison to Texas, 400. Virginia, 99. Florida…You don’t fit. So you’re not that serious about the death penalty. You’re not…your heart’s not in it, in the way the other states are.”

The Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing filed a plea for an extension, which included the signatures of 185 Tennessee ministers.

The revised rules will likely be challenged soon. Phillip Workman is scheduled to die by lethal injection May 9th for killing a Memphis police officer.