Criminal Law
tcask:: on the road (to abolition) 
News and information relating to the death penalty.
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By Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing
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American Law Institute Resolves Death Penalty System Is "Intractably" Flawed
Posted on November 10, 2009On October 23, 2009, the American Law Institute (ALI) Council voted overwhelmingly, with only a few abstentions, to accept the resolution of the capital punishment matter as approved by the Institute?s membership at the 2009 Annual Meeting in May. The resolution adopted at the Annual Meeting and now accepted by the Council reads as follows: ?For reasons stated in Part V of the Council?s report to the membership, the Institute withdraws Section 210...
Vanderbilt Law School Hosts Death Penalty Debate
Posted on November 05, 2009At noon, on November 9, in Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt Law School, two leading death penalty scholars will debate the issue of capital punishment. Ken Hass, professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, and District Attorney, Joshua Marquis of Clatsop Co...
Tennessee Judge Makes History on Cost Ruling
Posted on October 29, 2009A new development in the widely publicized trial of Lemaricus Davidson, found guilty this week of the brutal murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in Knoxville: Judge Richard Baumgartner ruled today for the first time in Knox County judicial history that he will instruct Davidson's jury that it is more expensive to execute Davidson than to give him life without parole...
Former Texas Governor Changes His Mind on the Death Penalty
Posted on October 27, 2009As I was driving to Memphis on Thursday for the Voices on the Death Penalty panel, I was listening to NPR. The topic was Texas Governor Rick Perry's decision to replace members of a state commission investigating the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 though national arson experts prior to his execution and more since, have stated that there was no arson in this case and that Willingham was wrongfully convicted and executed...
Voices on the Death Penalty Panel a Powerful Experience
Posted on October 26, 2009Nearly 120 people turned out on a rainy Memphis evening to attend Voices on the Death Penalty: A Dialogue from the Front Lines. For over an hour, attendees heard the powerful stories of those who have been directly affected by the death penalty and why they now are working to end this public policy...
New Report Show that States Can't Afford the Death Penalty
Posted on October 20, 2009"Thirty-five states still retain the death penalty, but fewer and fewer executions are taking place every year," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). "But the overall death row population has remained relatively steady...
Voices on the Death Penalty Panel at Rhodes College
Posted on October 16, 2009On Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 at Rhodes College in Memphis, a panel of speakers will share their perspectives on the death penalty. Each of these panelists has been directly touched by this issue in a personal way. Paul and Joyce House will be there for their first time together speaking in a public forum...
justice denied, justice delayed
Posted on October 07, 2009The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, an almost certainly innocent man executed in Texas, continues to garner national attention. The latest turn of events in the continuing saga of this case only demonstrates the obvious desperation of Texas Governor Rick Perry to keep the truth from coming out...
Death Penalty Awareness Week
Posted on September 30, 2009This week is Death Penalty Awareness Week at Vanderbilt University, hosted by Amnesty International. Last night they kicked off the week with the showing of, At Death House Door. A good crowd showed up to watch the documentary that delves into the story of Carroll Pickett--the former Chaplain for the Texas Department of Corrections...
Shouting From the Rooftops
Posted on September 24, 2009In 2006, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that there has not been "a single case - not one - in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops...
Article on Innocence with Tennessee Connections
Posted on September 21, 2009I am on my way out of the office today but ran across this article and wanted to post it for folks to see. Read the story here.
Lawyers Plan to Stop Ohio from Second Execution Attempt
Posted on September 18, 2009Lawyers for Ohio inmate Romell Broom will file lawsuits to stop the state from a second attempt to execute Broom. On Tuesday, an Ohio execution team worked for more than 2 hours trying to find a usable vein for the lethal injection process to proceed and finally stopped when Governor Ted Strickland intervened, giving Broom a week-long reprieve...
Ohio Execution Delayed Because of Vein Trouble
Posted on September 16, 2009I saw this story when I got to the office this morning, and I was sickened by what I read. Yesterday, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland gave 53-year-old death row inmate, Romell Broom, a week long reprieve when Broom's execution team could not find a vein in his arm after working on him for more than two hours...
Tennessee Bar Journal Features Story on Death Penalty Study Committee
Posted on September 11, 2009Long time criminal defense attorney and former director of the Tennessee Justice Project, Bill Redick, authored the cover story of the most recent edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal with his reflection on the work of the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty...
Our Staff : Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Posted on September 01, 2009Stacy Rector, Executive Director Stacy Rector is a native of Dyersburg, Tennessee, a graduate of Rhodes College and Columbia Theological Seminary, and an ordained Presbyterian minister. She served as the Associate Pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville for nine years...
New Report Shows Texas Executed a Man in 2004 Who Was Most Likely Innocent
Posted on August 31, 2009Some of us are already familiar with the tragic story of Cameron Todd Willingham. In fact, a few years ago, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty published a resource called "Innocent and Executed" that featured the stories of four men who were most likely innocent and executed--three in Texas and one in Missouri...
Jury Gives Cobbins Life Without Parole
Posted on August 27, 2009Last night, a Knoxville jury sentenced Letalvis Cobbins, the first of 4 defendants to stand trial for the carjacking, rapes, and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, the sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Read more here...
Reflecting on a Tragedy
Posted on August 24, 2009By now, I imagine that most Tennesseans are aware of the trial underway in Knoxville for one of the four people charged in the carjacking, rape, and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a young Knoxville couple, in 2007.Every aspect of this case is horrific...
Troy Davis Gets New Hearing
Posted on August 17, 2009Today the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a federal judge in Georgia to consider and rule on the claim of innocence in the murder case against Troy Anthony Davis. The Court told the District Court to ?receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence...
Yes...The System is Broken
Posted on August 13, 2009I recently read a story that appeared as a news report from Channel 6 WATE in Knoxville. The title of the story, "Many Say Tennessee Death Penalty System Broken."Of course, I was hopeful that the story would cover a number of the many problems highlighted by the Tennessee Study Committee including the lack of adequate defense attorneys and services for those on trial for capital murder, the lack of recorded interrogations, the lack of open file discovery procedures, the disproportionate numbers of those with severe mental illness on death row, the lack of more reliable eyewitness identification procedures, the lack of preservation and proper storage of biological evidence, etc...
North Carolina Legislature Takes a Stand for Justice
Posted on August 06, 2009Yesterday, North Carolina's General Assembly approved making the state the second in the country, following Kentucky, to allow attorneys to use statistical data to demonstrate how racial bias factors into the decision of prosecutors to seek or jurors to impose the death penalty...
Faith Statement: Catholic Campaign to End Capital Punishment
Posted on August 01, 2009"I renew the appeal... for a consensus to end the death penalty."-- Pope John Paul IISt. Louis, MO1/27/99Death penalty factsApproximately 3,300 people are on death row in the US; 89 of them in Tennessee.Since executions were reinstated in 1977, over 130 death row inmates have been exonerated; 2 in Tennessee...
Faith statement: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Call to End Capital Punishment
Posted on August 01, 2009Presbyterians, guided by Scripture, believe that God has deep concern for those who are held captive or imprisoned. Throughout the Hebrew texts and New Testament, the prophets, and later, Jesus, call attention to those who are languishing in prisons and jails?encouraging followers to visit them, to advocate for them, and to share in their suffering...
Faith statement: United Methodist Church Call to End Capital Punishment
Posted on August 01, 2009The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church on the Death PenaltyWe believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore and transform all human beings. The United Methodist Church is deeply concerned about crime throughout the world and the value of any life taken by a murder or homicide...
A Poet Mourns
Posted on July 31, 2009On Wednesday's edition of NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, poet Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno shares poetry from her new book Slamming the Door Open about the murder of her daughter, Leidy, in 2003. Leidy had just completed nursing school when an ex-boyfriend, angry about their break-up and the fact that Leidy caught him stealing her credit card information, broke into her apartment and strangled her with a telephone cord...
One Year Later: A Journey of Healing
Posted on July 28, 2009One year ago yesterday, Jim David Adkisson entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville during a children's musical performance and began shooting. Before he was finally tackled by a courageous member of the congregation, Adkisson had killed 2 people--Linda Kraeger and Greg McKendry, an elder who attempted to block him from shooting other people--and wounded six...
December 2nd Execution Date Set for Tennessee Inmate Cecil Johnson
Posted on July 22, 2009The Tennessee Supreme Court has set a December 2nd execution date for Cecil Johnson, an inmate who has served on Tennessee's death row for 28 years. Johnson was convicted of the 1980 armed robbery and murders of three Nashvillians, including a 12 year-old boy...
Two Recent Exonerations Bring the Number of Death Row Exonerees to 135
Posted on July 15, 2009On Thursday, July 9th, Herman Lindsey of Florida became the 135th death row exoneree since 1973 after the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered his freedom. The Court determined that there was not enough evidence to convict him of murdering a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop worker in 1994...
FUSE (Families United to Share and Empower) Meeting
Posted on July 13, 2009For most families, when a loved one dies, their communities provide needed care and support. However, for families whose loved one is executed or lives on death row, there is frequently no such outpouring. In fact, most of these families suffer in silence, rarely sharing the pain and feelings of isolation with which they struggle...
Sixth Circuit Court Rules Against Harbison on Lethal Injection
Posted on July 02, 2009Today the Sixth Circuit Court ruled against E.J. Harbison's challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection protocol holding that the U.S. Supreme Court's Baze decision, which upheld the constitutionality of Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, applies to Tennessee as well...
Georgia Death Row Inmate, Troy Davis, Safe Until September
Posted on June 29, 2009Today the US Supreme Court revealed that there will be NO DECISION on the Troy Davis case until the court reconvenes in September. Supporters of Davis have been rallying for the Court to take up his case in order that evidence of his innocence finally be heard...
Court Rules the Convicted Have No Right to DNA Tests
Posted on June 18, 2009On Thursday, June 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those convicted of a crime do not have the right to obtain DNA testing on evidence that could prove their innocence. The 5-4 decision involved the case of William Osborne, an Alaskan man convicted of assault, kidnapping, and sexual assault in 1993...
New Study Reveals Lack of Support for Deterrence Effect of the Death Penalty
Posted on June 17, 2009Yesterday a new study entitled, ?Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading Criminologists,? was published in Northwestern University School of Law?s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. The study is authored by Professor Michael Radelet, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and Traci Lacock, an attorney and Sociology graduate student in Boulder...
Connecticut's Governor Vetoes Abolition Legislation
Posted on June 08, 2009On June 5, Connecticut's Governor, Jodi Rell, made good on her promise to veto legislation that would have abolished the death penalty in that state. The Governor had expressed her opposition to the measure all along and issued her promised veto last week...
Generations Against the Death Penalty TCASK Benefit Concert Review
Posted on June 03, 2009Yesterday evening, June 2, nearly 120 people gathered in the Belcourt's 1925 Hall to hear the musical styling's of parent-child duos, Rodney Crowell and Chelsea Crowell, and Ranger Doug (from Rider's in the Sky) and James Green. The musicians, in collaboration with TCASK board member, Lauren Brown, developed a two-hour "in-the-round" style performance that touched the hearts of cowboy-western music enthusiasts and caressed the ears of lovers of poetic lyrics...
Paul Reid: A case of long-term, severe mental illness
Posted on June 01, 2009Paul Dennis Reid suffers, not only from severe mental illness, but from a congenital brain defect. His brain is physically deformed as he is missing a portion of his left temporal lobe ? the part of the brain that processes information from other regions of the brain, facilitates memory, and helps integrate emotions with cognition...
Answering the hard questions: Cost
Posted on June 01, 2009Capital Punishment is a far more expensive system than one whose maximum penalty is life without the possibility of parole.According to a New Jersey study conducted by New Jersey Policy Perspectives, between 1983 and 2005, N.J. taxpayers paid $253 million more for their death penalty system than they would have for a system that only seeks life without parole as its maximum punishment...
Answering the hard questions: Deterrence
Posted on June 01, 2009"I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a deterrent. And I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point." -U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, January 21, 2000Consider the following:Generally, states without the death penalty have consistently lower murder rates than states with the death penalty...
Answering the hard questions: Innocence
Posted on June 01, 2009"If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed." -Justice Sandra Day O?ConnorConsider the following:Because human beings administer the death penalty system and because human beings are fallible, innocent people may have been executed in the past and will continue to be executed in the future...
Answering the hard questions: Mental illness
Posted on June 01, 2009"Over the past thirty years, the number of people with mental illness and other mental disabilities on death row has steadily increased." -Mental Health AmericaInternational law clearly outlaws the execution of persons with mental illness. Virtually every country in the world prohibits the execution of those who are considered "insane...
Answering the hard problems: Race and the death penalty
Posted on June 01, 2009"By reserving the penalty of death for black defendants . . . or for those convicted of killing white persons, we perpetuate the ugly legacy of slavery - teaching our children that some lives are inherently less precious than others."-Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, Former President, Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceSince 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants (80%) have been executed for killing white victims, although whites make up only 50% percent of all homicide victims...
Answering the hard questions: Myth or fact?
Posted on June 01, 2009Mtyh: The death penalty deters crime.Fact: Studies have repeatedly shown that the death penalty does not deter violent crime any more than other punishments such as life imprisonment. Eighty-eight percent of the country?s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide (Radelet and Lacock, 2009)...
Olen Hutchison: A case of severe sentencing disparity
Posted on June 01, 2009Seven people were convicted of murdering Hugh Huddleston in 1988. Today, only Olen Hutchison faces the death penalty for that crime. Mr. Hutchison's death sentence is unjust when the major participants in the murder are either free or are eligible for parole...
Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman: A case of ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and severe mental illness
Posted on June 01, 2009Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman was convicted in 1987 of the murder of Patrick Daniels, who was stabbed to death in 1986.The quality of Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman's representation at the guilt/innocence stage of his trial as well as the sentencing phase have been called into questions when his lawyers were supposed to defend him from the death penalty...
E.J. Harbison: A Case of Ineffective Counsel and Arbitrary Sentencing
Posted on June 01, 2009E.J. Harbison, a poor, borderline mentally retarded, African-American man, with no prior criminal record, is currently scheduled to be executed in Tennessee pending the outcome of litigation concerning Tennessee's lethal injection protocols. Proponents tout the death penalty as being reserved for the worst of the worst, but Harbison's case demonstrates the emptiness of this claim...
Andrew Thomas: A case of flawed testimony
Posted on June 01, 2009Andrew Thomas was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the April 1997 robbery and shooting of an armored truck guard, James Day, while Day was leaving a Memphis Walgreens with a money deposit bag. However, new evidence calls this conviction into question...
Perry Anthony Cribbs: A case of inadequate defense and faulty eyewitness testimony
Posted on June 01, 2009In November 1994, Perry Anthony Cribbs was wrongfully convicted of killing Linda Harris in Memphis, Tennessee with no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Cribbs' conviction was based on the questionable eyewitness identification of Harris' husband and the unreliable testimony of Cribbs' then mentally ill, drug addicted girlfriend...
Pervis Payne
Posted on June 01, 2009In 1988, Pervis Payne, an African-American, was convicted in Shelby County and sentenced to death for the 1987 murders of Charisse Christopher, a white woman, and her two-year-old daughter, Lacie. He was also convicted and sentenced to thirty years for the attempted murder of Nicholas Christopher, Charisee Christopher's three-year-old son...
Paul Gregory House: A case of wrongful conviction and exoneration
Posted on June 01, 2009In June of 2006, the United States Supreme Court ruled that in the case of Paul House "no reasonable juror viewing the record as a whole would lack reasonable doubt." In other words, no juror in America would find Paul House guilty of the 1985 murder of Carolyn Muncey...
Steve Henley: The Troubling Reality of Sentence Disparity
Posted on June 01, 2009Steve Henley and Terry Flatt were convicted of the 1985 murders of Fred and Edna Stafford, an elderly couple living in Jackson County. All the evidence, including the motive for the crime, was provided by Terry Flatt, who made a deal with prosecutors and served just over five years...
Former Florida Warden Speaks Out
Posted on May 27, 2009Yesterday the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty sent us this great op-ed posted on The Orlando Sentinel's web site by former Florida prison warden Ron McAndrew about why the death penalty is flawed and should be abolished. You'll find it here...
Connecticut Legislature Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty
Posted on May 22, 2009Just after 4am this morning, the Connecticut Senate voted 19 to 17 to repeal that state's death penalty. This follows the unexpectedly overwhelming 90-56 vote in the House last week. The bill is now on its way to the desk of Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, who in media reports is saying that she still supports the death penalty and is suggesting that she may veto the bill...
Director of National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Reflects on the 132nd Death Row Exoneration
Posted on May 18, 2009On May 14, Diann Rust-Tierney wrote a compelling article for The Huffington Post concerning the Paul House case and its implications for other cases of possible innocence, specifically the case of Troy Davis. Davis currently sits on Georgia's death row and is awaiting a decision in his case by the U...
PAUL HOUSE IS EXONERATED
Posted on May 12, 2009As I was getting ready for work today I walked out of the bathroom to hear Paul House?s name on the Channel 4 News. I ran to the screen only to catch a segway into the next news brief. Shrugging it off, I figured it was a quick update to the June 1 retrial or another trial extension request, as it's happened twice before...
Colorado Senate Falls One Vote Short of Repeal
Posted on May 07, 2009Yesterday a Colorado bill that would have repealed the death penalty and dedicated the savings to solving cold cases failed by just one vote in the Senate. The Colorado House voted in favor of repeal by one vote last month. The bill would have redirected $1 million currently spent on the death penalty to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for investigating unsolved crimes known as cold cases of which Colorado has 1,400...
House's Federal Defender Asks Court to Stop Retrial
Posted on May 01, 2009Yesterday Paul House's federal public defender, Stephen Kissinger, argued before a three judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati that the state of Tennessee has persisted in a pattern on delay in dealing with the Paul House case and should be barred from trying him again for the murder of Carolyn Muncey...
U.S. Supreme Court Rules Gary Cone Deserves New Hearing
Posted on April 29, 2009Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that Tennessee death row inmate Gary Cone deserves a new hearing to determine whether evidence withheld by the prosecution in Shelby County would have changed the jury's mind about imposing the death sentence...
Justice Day on the Hill
Posted on April 24, 2009"I'm just a bill.Yes, I'm only a bill.And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill."Those are lyrics from the legendary Schoolhouse Rock video "I'm Just a Bill." Click HERE to watch it. For TCASK's 2009 Justice Day on the Hill, the bill was House Bill 1496, enacting a one year moratorium on Tennessee's death penalty...
New Hampshire Passes Historic Legislation for Crime Victims Equality
Posted on April 06, 2009On March 26th the New Hampshire House of Representatives became the first legislative body in the country to pass a crime victims equality act to prohibit discrimination against family members of murder victims who oppose the death penalty. HB 370, "An act relative to the treatment of victims of crime", was passed by a 213-114 margin...
Paul House's DNA Not on Jeans
Posted on April 02, 2009"Testing has again failed to find DNA from a former Tennessee death row inmate on evidence that will be used to retry him for a woman's murder."Read the rest of this article by CLICKING HERE."But the tests also found DNA from one of the stains is a combination of Muncey's and an unknown male, according to a lab analysis by Laboratory Corp...
High Court Says Federal Public Defenders Can Work on State Clemency Proceedings
Posted on April 01, 2009Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tennessee inmate E.J. Harbison who had asked the court to allow his federal public defender to serve as his clemency counsel. Harbison, who is indigent, cannot afford to hire an attorney to represent him at clemency proceedings and requested that his federal public defender, who has worked on his case for years, continue to represent him...
Death Penalty Repeal in the Land of Enchantment
Posted on March 30, 2009Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, had a wonderful article in the Huffington Post recently titled "Death Penalty Repeal in the Land of Enchantment." Read it by CLICKING HERE.Highlights include:"The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty joins people around the country and the world in celebrating New Mexico's death penalty repeal...
What About the Evidence?
Posted on March 24, 2009In today's Tennessee Voices section of the Tennessean, editorials concerning the recommendations of the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty are featured. I have an opinion piece included, as does Verna Wyatt, Director of You Have the Power, a victims' advocacy group in Tennessee...
New Mexico Repeals Death Penalty
Posted on March 19, 2009Governor Bill Richardson signed House Bill 285, repealing the death penalty in the state of New Mexico. The following is a statement from Governor Richardson:Today marks the end of a long, personal journey for me and the issue of the death penalty.Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment ? in very rare instances, and only for the most heinous crimes...
New Mexico on the Brink of Repeal
Posted on March 17, 2009On Friday, March 13, the New Mexico State Senate voted 24-18 in favor of repeal of the death penalty. This vote marked the last hurdle for abolition in the New Mexico legislature. Governor Bill Richardson has until tomorrow to decide if he will sign the repeal legislation into law, abolishing the death penalty in New Mexico...
TCASK Represented in NY
Posted on March 13, 2009Former TCASK board of directors chair, Amy Sayward, hosted a discussion last night at St. Bonaventure University about the Catholic church and the death penalty. St. Bonaventure is located 77 miles south of Buafflo.The discussion which she co-hosted with Olean attorney, Janine Fodor was titled, "Are Catholics Really Pro-Life? The Case against the Death Penalty...
Cover Article on Steve Henley in the Nashville Scene
Posted on March 11, 2009In last week's Nashville Scene, the cover story focused on the case of Steve Henley, a Tennessee death row inmate executed in February 2009. As most of you who regularly read this blog already know, I visited Steve for the past 10 years, and over those years, he became like a brother to me...
Eyewitness Testimony Lacks Reliability
Posted on March 09, 200960 Minutes aired a great story on last night's show concerning the increasing problems related to the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Leslie Stahl interviewed Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton, both of North Carolina, whose lives are forever connected by Thompson's misidentification of Cotton as her rapist...
Cost of the Death Penalty
Posted on February 26, 2009"When Gov. Martin O?Malley appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs."Yesterday's New York Times contained an article titled "Citing Cost, States Consider End to Death Penalty...
Abolitionist Legacy
Posted on February 25, 2009Dianne Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty had an excellent article published in The Huffington Post titled "We, Too, Are Abolitionists: Black History Month, Slavery, and the Death Penalty."Read it by CLICKING HERE...
Tennessee Study Committee Issues a Report
Posted on February 24, 2009On February 19, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty met for the final time. Along with the legislative recommendations on which it had already decided, the Committee voted 12-2 to issue a report highlighting the issues it covered and summaries of the testimony received...
No Evidence Linking House to Murder
Posted on February 23, 2009"DNA from key evidence in a Tennessee woman's slaying does not match the man who spent more than two decades on death row for killing her, according to new FBI lab tests."Read more from this AP article by CLICKING HERE.Once again, new evidence has been presented further indicating that Paul House did not murder Carolyn Muncey...
Steve Henley Media Coverage
Posted on February 13, 2009"The EU says it has "strongly" condemned the execution of an American in a Tennessee prison earlier this month"Read the rest of this AP article by CLICKING HERE."Society has a love affair with violence."Read this Clarksville Leave Chronicle letter to the editor by CLICKING HERE...
Another Extension to the Paul House Case
Posted on February 12, 2009Paul House?s retrial has been extended once again. Now, the House case is set for June 1, 2009, almost two years after he was released from prison on bail. Thanks to an anonymous donor, House was released but has been on house arrest since that time.Paul House was convicted of the 1985 murder of Carolyn Muncey...
Saying Goodbye
Posted on February 09, 2009I have not had the time nor the energy to attempt to write anything here before today. The past week has been one of the most painful and most holy of my life, and it will take me a very long time to deal with all that has happened. Looking back, I guess that I lived in denial for a very long time about Steve's possible execution...
Clemency for Steve Henley
Posted on February 03, 2009The state of Tennessee plans to execute Steve Henley at 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 4th. The citizen response to this planned execution has been incredible.-6 total phone banks in Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville-Over 2000 phone calls made to ask citizens to call Governor Bredesen and ask him to grant Steve clemency-Hundreds of phone calls made to the Governor-Nearly 1000 clemency cards delivered to the Governor-2 opinion editorials-2 letters to the editorThe grassroots response has been strong because Tennesseans are troubled by the circumstances of this execution...
Memphis Commerical Appeal Editorial and Analysis
Posted on January 27, 2009On Sunday, January 25, the Memphis Commercial Appeal published an editorial and lengthy analysis of the current state of Tennessee's death penalty.Read the editorial by CLICKING HERE. Read the analysis by CLICKING HERE.Editorial:"There is nothing government does that is more profound than to take the life of a citizen...
Arthur Copeland Receives New Sentence
Posted on January 16, 2009Tennessee death row inmate, Arthur Copeland, has received a reduced sentence under a new plea. Copeland plead to second-degree murder with a sentence of 14 years. Copeland will serve 3 years before he is released because of the 11 years he spent on death row...
Letting Go of the Death Penalty
Posted on January 14, 2009Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director of Death Penalty Information Center, had an excellent article published by the Huffington Post that makes a compelling argument for "letting go of the death penalty."Read the article by clicking HERE.Dieter examines the death penalty for what it truly is: a costly, time consuming, resource expending, and flawed public policy...
What Does it Take?
Posted on January 12, 2009Sita Diehl, Director of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) TN and a member of the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty, recently proposed that the Committee recommend legislation exempting people suffering with severe mental illness at the time of their crimes from the death sentence...
Paul House is Home for Christmas
Posted on January 05, 2009After spending over two decades on death row Paul House was able to spend his 47th birthday and the 2008 Christmas holidays, at home, with his family. Because of the rarity of Paul's case Channel 4 did a brief news piece on the House family's holiday celebration: http://www...
The Year that Was
Posted on December 23, 2008I am sitting in my office on Tuesday afternoon, December 23, and all the staff has left for the holiday. I am going through the piles of paper on my desk to be sure I haven't missed anything too monumental before I head home for Christmas.And, I decided that I need to reflect for just a few minutes on the year that was...
Stephen Michael West's Appeal Denied
Posted on December 19, 2008Tennessee death row inmate Stephen Michael West has had his appeal denied by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. "A panel on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati revealed Thursday it has ruled against Stephen Michael West, who has been on death row since 1986 for fatally stabbing Wanda Romines and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila, in Union County, which is in northeast Tennessee...
The Wall Is Beginning to Crumble
Posted on December 18, 2008Yesterday, abolitionists across this country and the world, celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey. On December 17, 2007, New Jersey became the only state to abolish the death penalty legislatively and the first to abolish the death penalty since 1965...
Maryland Commission Votes for Repeal
Posted on December 15, 2008The Maryland Commission to study capital punishment voted 13-9 in favor of repealing the death penalty."Its report to the General Assembly outlines the commission's findings after listening to 35 hours of testimony over five months, including the determination that it is possible to execute an innocent person and that racial and jurisdictional biases play into the application of the death penalty...
2009 NCADP Conference
Posted on December 13, 2008Join the staff of TCASK, your fellow Tennesseans, and anti-death penalty advocates from across the world in Harrisburg from January 22 ? January 25, 2009. Registration and conference info can be found by CLICKING HERE. TCASK?s Executive Director, Rev...
Gary Cone, Gaile Owens, EJ Harbison
Posted on December 10, 2008Gary ConeThe US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Cone v. Bell. Gary Cone, the defendant, is currently on Tennessee's death row for the 1980 murder of an elderly Memphis couple. There is no doubt of Cone's guilt. However, Cone's defense has uncovered serious allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, including the withholding of critical evidence for Cone's defense...
More Recommedations from the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee
Posted on December 09, 2008During a three hour meeting yesterday, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty worked through more issues and produced more recommendations. The most dramatic of the recommendations made yesterday was the approval of legislation to recommend that the Tennessee General Assembly create an independent commission to oversee capital defense services in Tennessee...
Man Receives Federal Death Sentence
Posted on December 08, 2008Rejon Taylor joined 50 other inmates nationwide as a rare federal death sentence was handed out. Taylor was convicted of the abduction and murder of an Atlanta restaurant owner, Guy Luck. The case was made federal because the victim was taken across state lines into Tennessee...
Death Penalty Study Committee Makes Recommendation
Posted on December 03, 2008The Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty met on December 1 for several hours to begin voting on recommendations to the legislature. Though much was discussed, disappointingly, not much was recommended.The only recommendation which made it out of the Committee on Monday was a recommendation to create a state policy asking that law enforcement agencies record custodial interrogations...
Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment Recommends Repeal
Posted on November 17, 2008On November 12, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted 13-7 to recommend to the legislature to repeal the death penalty in that state. The 23-member commission whose membership includes a police chief, a former death row inmate exonerated by DNA, religious leaders, three murder victims family members, legislators, and a county prosecutor, found that "the capital punishment system as it exists in Maryland doesn't really work...
Adriane Dickerson Murder Reopened
Posted on November 14, 2008In a stunning turn of events, it has been discovered that the star witness in the murder of Adriane Dickerson was incarcerated during the time he claimed to have witnessed the murder. The death sentence convictions of G'Dongalay Berry and Christopher Davis for two other murders was won largely due to the jury's impression that they had also been responsible for Dickerson's death...
TN Death Row Inmate Granted New DNA Testing
Posted on November 10, 2008William Glenn Rogers, a Tennessee death row inmate, has won a motion to test DNA evidence in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Jackie Beard in 1996.Rogers believes that the DNA evidence will exonerate him. "During his trial in 2000, DNA from semen stains found on the girl's shorts were inconclusive...
TCASK Presents at Amnesty International Conference
Posted on November 03, 2008TCASK was represented at the Amnesty International Southern Regional Conference held in Memphis, TN, October 31-November 2. On Saturday afternoon Stacy and Katie co-presented a Death Penalty 101 seminar with Brian Evans of the Amnesty International USA Death Penalty Campaign...
Troy Davis Receives Stay of Execution
Posted on October 25, 2008Troy Anthony Davis received a stay of execution Friday. He had been scheduled for execution on Monday, October 27. This is excellent news and a testament to the significant grassroots organizing conducted around Troy Davis.?Upon our thorough review of the record, we conclude that Davis has met the burden for a stay of execution,? the court said in an order issued by Judges Joel Dubina, Rosemary Barkett and Stanley Marcus...
Tennesean Editorial and Op-Eds on Death Penalty
Posted on October 16, 2008Kudos to Dwight Lewis and the Tennessean for publishing an editorial as well as 3 opinion editorials on the death penalty in Tennessee."Whether in support of or in opposition to a death penalty, the residents of Tennessee should have clarity, compassion and, especially, justice for everyone...
U.S. Supreme Court Allows Troy Davis Execution
Posted on October 14, 2008Today the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from Georgia death row inmate, Troy Davis, refusing to consider the case. The court refused to hear the appeal without comment.Without comment...seven out of nine prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony since Davis' conviction in 1991, and the highest court in the land has no comment...
Belmont Pep-Rally
Posted on October 08, 2008A pre-debate rally lasted all day yesterday at Belmont University. TCASK, along with many others, braved the cold and rainy weather and walked along "issues alley" which was located along the outskirts of Belmont's campus. Though we complained about being wet and cold, our misfortune was a fair trade for being a part of a history-making event and to have the opportunity to spread the word about the death penalty...
Paul House Trial Delayed
Posted on October 03, 2008The retrial for Paul House, which was scheduled to begin on October 14, has now been postponed until March 2009 at the request of attorneys on both sides. After 23 years of waiting, yet another delay is frustrating for many of us, but House's attorneys need more time to ensure that he gets the best defense possible and is ultimately exonerated...
S.O.S. Back in Action
Posted on October 01, 2008Last night I stuck around after work for a few hours for my first encounter with the speakers bureau of murder victims families, a program called Sharing Our Stories: Murder Victims' Families Speak (S.O.S.). Every two months S.O.S. meets to build fellowship with one another and practice presenting their very personal and tragic family stories...
Student Conference on the Death Penalty
Posted on September 30, 2008When I finished my plan for the 2008 Student Conference on the Death Penalty, I had set a goal for an attendance of 100 students from across the state of Tennessee. My thinking was that if I did the work necessary to accomplish the goal and maintained the mindset of a 100 person conference, that the attendance would be strong...
Troy Davis Receives Last Minute Stay
Posted on September 24, 2008Only two hours before Troy Davis was to be executed in Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Davis' appeal. Davis wants the Court to order a judge to hear from the witnesses who have recanted their original testimony against him and from others who say another man confessed to the crime...
Hair Found on Body Not House's
Posted on September 19, 2008An independent lab has found that the hair discovered in the hand of Carolyn Muncey did not belong to Paul House. This hair was considered to be the last piece of critical evidence potentially linking House to the murder of Muncey in 1983. Before the testing of the hair, District Attorney Paul Phillips stated that he would consider dropping the charges if the hair did not belong to House...
STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS
Posted on September 15, 2008This past Friday the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for Troy Davis. Davis was convicted of a murder in 1989 based only on witness testimonies. Since the original trial, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their accusations, saying that they experienced police coercion...
Daryl Holton, 1 Year Later
Posted on September 12, 2008One year ago Daryl Holton was executed by the state of Tennessee for murdering his four children. The vigil that TCASK organized at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the execution was early on in my tenure with TCASK and has served as a galvanizing moment in my conviction against the death penalty...
Study Committee Hears from TN Justices and Barry Scheck
Posted on September 11, 2008Tuesday proved to be a very full day for the members of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee. The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. with comments from Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade and new Chief Justice Janice Holder. The Justices addressed several of the recommendations which the Committee is considering including bypassing the Criminal Court of Appeals (CCA) for capital cases and instead having all death penalty appeals go straight to the Tennessee Supreme Court, as well as the creation of an independent authority to oversee capital defense services in Tennessee...
Movie. Madness. Mohr.
Posted on September 10, 2008Greetings!My name is Katie Mohr and I am the newest addition to the TCASK state office. I recently graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English Writing and Psychology. I have relocated to Nashville and committed myself to a year of service with the Young Adult Volunteer Program sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U...
More Death Penalty Study Committee News
Posted on September 08, 2008Today the Fairness subcommittee of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee met to continue its discussion about how to improve representation for indigent defendants charged with capital crimes in Tennessee. Report after report cited in the Committee, including reports by the American Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association, highlight the lack of adequate defense services available to indigent defendants in our state who are on trial for their lives...
Sister Helen Prejean Speaks to the Interfaith Gathering at the Democratic National Convention
Posted on September 03, 2008I received this email recently sharing the words of Sister Helen Prejean to the Interfaith Gathering at the Democratic National Convention. Here are some excerpts:OUR SACRED RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR NATIONJesus said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, the ears that hear what you hear...
Love Lived on Death Row to Show at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville
Posted on August 27, 2008Loved Lived on Death Row follows the amazing journey of the Syriani siblings from hate to forgiveness toward their father who was sentenced to die for the murder of their mother and recounts the friendship between their father and his pen-pal and spiritual advisor, Meg Eggleston...
Introducing Denver Schimming
Posted on August 21, 2008As TCASK?s newest staff member, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. I will be working as an organizer, specifically in reaching out to members of law enforcement and their respective agencies. I will also be working to expand our Sharing our Stories: Murder Victim?s Families Speak program which pairs a murder victim?s family member with a TCASK volunteer to provide presentations...
Fairness Committee Focuses on Defense
Posted on August 19, 2008The Fairness subcommittee of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee met for several hours yesterday in a thoughtful, yet at times frustrating, discussion on the importance of creating an independent authority in Tennessee to oversee capital defense services...
Abolitionist Leadership Training Institute
Posted on August 14, 2008Last week, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) hosted a training in Washington D.C. The training was the First Annual Abolitionist Leadership Training Institute. It was held at Catholic University. States were asked to bring a team of 4 individuals to the training...
Tennessee Does Not Preserve DNA Evidence
Posted on August 08, 2008In the ABA's 2007 report on Tennessee's death penalty system, Tennessee fully complied with only 7 of 93 guidelines for a fair and accurate system. The lack of preservation of DNA evidence was one of the failures of Tennessee's system.An article in yesterday's Tennessean highlights issues such as extra costs and storage space as reasons why Tennessee and other states are not preserving evidence...
California Report Indicts Death Penalty
Posted on August 06, 2008The California Commission on the Death Penalty released its report on June 30, 2008, and I think it is important for Tennesseans, whose legislature is also examining the death penalty with the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty, to reflect on what the California report found...
News Story concerning Promptness Subcommittee
Posted on August 04, 2008Last Thursday, the Promptness subcommittee of the Tennessee Study Committee on the Administration of the Death Penalty met for several hours with some compelling testimony and discussion.One topic concerned the creation of an independent coordinator for services available to surviving victims' families of first degree murder...
Knoxville Church Shooting Victim Drops Death Penalty Support
Posted on July 31, 2008"Three days after being shot at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Joe Barnhart's stance on capital punishment has weakened."That's the beginning of an article authored by Marti Davis that appeared in yesterday's Knoxville News Sentinel and can be read by clicking HERE...
Prayers and Thoughts for the Knoxville Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Posted on July 28, 2008As most of you are probably aware, yesterday during a church youth performance of "Annie", a gunman opened fired at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, killing 2 and wounding 7. The first to be killed was Greg McKendry, a longtime church member and usher...
Promptness Study Committee Meets
Posted on July 25, 2008Yesterday the Promptness subcommittee of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee met for four hours discussing issues from the length of time taken for post-conviction proceedings to exempting those with severe mental illness from the death penalty...
More National News for Paul House
Posted on July 24, 2008Deborah Hastings, an AP National Writer has written a fantastic and comprehensive article covering the case of Paul House.Read it by clicking HERE.Highlights include: "Paul Gregory House has known many prisons. Death row. His own body ravaged by multiple sclerosis...
Maryland Anti-Death Penalty Activists Targeted
Posted on July 22, 2008The ACLU released documents on Thursday that Maryland state police went undercover to spy on war protesters and anti-death penalty activists during 2005-2006. Documents show that during this year covert agents infiltrated groups like the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty as well as the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row prisoner in Maryland...
Death Penalty Study Committee Meets
Posted on July 17, 2008Yesterday the Fairness subcommittee of the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty met for over three hours as they discussed the problems with defense representation in capital cases in Tennessee. The American Bar Association Report on Fairness and Accuracy of Tennessee's Death Penalty System released in 2007 states that "Tennessee's statutory qualification requirements for capital defense attorneys fall far short of the requirements of the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases and are insufficient to ensure qualified counsel for every death-sentenced inmate...
Another Possible Break for Paul House
Posted on July 10, 2008Yesterday in a surprise move, District Attorney Paul Phillips stated that if Paul House's DNA is not found on a hair discovered in Carolyn Muncey's hand following her murder, he will consider dropping the charges against House. If the DNA from the hair or other evidence belongs to a third party, Phillips says he will not prosecute...
At Home with Paul House
Posted on July 08, 2008I cannot express in words my gratitude to all of you who have followed the Paul House case over the years--who have written letters, made phone calls, sent financial support, attended events, and prayed for justice to be done in this case. All of us received a wonderful gift for our July 4th this year, when on Wednesday of last week, House was finally released...
Paul House Released
Posted on July 02, 2008At approximately 10:00 a.m. this morning, Paul House was released from Lois M. Deberry Special Needs Facility. An anonymous donor provided Joyce House, Paul's mother, with the bail money in order for Paul to be released into the custody of his mother...
California Commission Calls Death Penalty "Dysfunctional"
Posted on July 01, 2008Yesterday the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice created by the California State Senate released its landmark report on the death penalty. Their findings reveal that California's death penalty system is excessively costly and riddled with problems leading to lack of fairness and wrongful convictions...
Property Bond for House
Posted on June 30, 2008This past Friday, Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood reduced Paul House's bail to $100,000. This reduction has allowed Joyce House, Paul's mother, to post a property bond to satisfy the bail. Paul House will be released into the custody of his mother--this week...
Paul House Is One Step Closer to Freedom
Posted on June 27, 2008A bail reduction hearing for Paul House was held today in Union County in order for the court to reconsider the amount of bail required for House's release. At the June 6th hearing, bail was set at $500,000, an exorbitant amount for a man in a wheelchair who is not a threat to the public nor a flight risk...
Fine Journalism for Paul House
Posted on June 27, 2008Reporter Sarah Kelley and the Nashville Scene continue to show a commitment to fully exposing the story behind the case of Paul House. Kelley's most recent article was the cover story for the latest issue of the Scene and it does not disappoint. The story is comprehensive and gives the reader a full understanding of what the House and the Muncey families have been forced to bear through for the past 23 years--a flawed system concerned more about convictions and vindictive practice than true justice...
Supreme Courts Rules on Kennedy v. Louisiana
Posted on June 25, 2008The U.S. Supreme Court has released its opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana, regarding the constitutionality of sentencing a person to death for the rape of a child in which no murder occurs. Patrick Kennedy is the first person in the country in the modern era of the death penalty to receive such a sentence...
Both Sides Agree System is Broken
Posted on June 23, 2008Today's Nashville City Paper featured an excellent article written by John Rodgers reporting from the Promptness Sub-Committee meeting of the Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty. You can read more about the sub-committee meetings in previous blog posts...
Study Committee Resumes Work
Posted on June 20, 2008Yesterday, 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...
Sixth Circuit Hears House Case Again
Posted on June 17, 2008In a surprise move, a three judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals gathered in Nashville today to consider an appeal filed by Paul House which claims that the state should by barred from re-trying the case. House?s federal defender, Steve Kissinger, argued that the state is not in compliance with Judge Mattice?s December 7, 2007 order which asserted that House should be retried or released in 180 days...
More about Richard Austin
Posted on June 13, 2008In today's Tennessean, Dwight Lewis wrote an interesting column concerning the case of Richard Austin, the oldest and longest serving inmate on Tennessee's death row, who recently died at the DeBerry Special Needs Facility here in Nashville. Lewis discusses the history of the case, a history that I didn't even know...
Ohio Must Change Lethal Injection Drugs
Posted on June 11, 2008Yesterday, 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...
Longest Serving Tennessee Death Row Inmate Dies
Posted on June 10, 2008We received word yesterday from the Tennessee Department of Correction that Richard Austin, the state's oldest and longest serving death row inmate, died at DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville on Sunday. Austin was sentenced to death in 1978 after a conviction in Shelby County of accessory before the fact to murder...
TCASK Board Retreat
Posted on June 09, 2008This past weekend TCASK held its annual Board retreat at Pickwick Lake in Southwest Tennessee at the lake home of our incoming Board Chair, Reverend Amy Howe and her husband, Dave. The purpose of such a retreat is to gather the board in a special location, develop a multi-year strategic plan, and build camaraderie amongst the board and staff of TCASK...
Paul House Bail Hearing Update
Posted on June 06, 2008Earlier 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...
How Difficult Can it Be
Posted on June 05, 2008This might come off as macabre. But seriously, in the year 2008 how difficult can it be to willingly kill a man? It continues to prove difficult as executioners in Georgia took 35 minutes to find a suitable vein to execute Curtis Osborne; he was pronounced dead 14 minutes after the first drugs entered his body...
Last Rights
Posted on June 04, 2008Last 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...
Richard Taylor Receives Life Sentence
Posted on June 03, 2008Press Release from the ACLU:NASHVILLE ? A severely mentally ill man who spent 18 years on death row and whose conviction and death sentence were reversed by a Tennessee appeals court in March was sentenced to life imprisonment today. Richard Taylor, twice forced to stand trial despite his severe mental illness, agreed to the sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to the 1981 murder of a Tennessee prison guard ? a crime committed only after prison officials stopped giving Taylor his anti-psychotic medication...
Joyce House Interview
Posted on June 03, 2008WBIR, Channel 10 in Knoxville has an extensive 20 minute long interview with Joyce House, mother of Paul House.The link to their general video archive can be found HERE.Once there, go to video search and search "Joyce House." It should be the first one that comes up.
Making Bail
Posted on June 02, 2008In Sunday's Tennessean, columnist Gail Kerr wrote a great piece concerning Paul House's upcoming bail hearing scheduled for Friday in Union County. The purpose of bail is to assure the appearance of the defendant at trial while assuring the safety of the public...
Media on Paul House Hearing
Posted on May 29, 2008As expected, there has been a significant amount of media reaction to yesterday's hearing.Kerry Haymaker , a criminal defense attorney, said the court rulings soften the prosecution."Their case becomes very, very weak," he said. "It sounds like the evidence in the case will be under greater attack now than way back then ? especially after the Circuit Court's ruling...
Paul House Remains in State Custody
Posted on May 28, 2008Today, Judge Harry S. Mattice ordered the state of Tennessee to move forward with the retrial of Paul House by June 17 or House will be released. However, this order only means that the state must show that they are preparing for a retrial by this date and does not mean that a jury must be seated...
Paul House Hearing Tomorrow
Posted on May 27, 2008On Wednesday, May 28 at 10:00 a.m. at the Federal Courthouse in Nashville, Courtoom 874 on the 8th floor (located at the corner of Broadway and 9th Avenue South just beside the Frist Center for the Visual Arts), a hearing will be held to determine the conditions of Paul House?s release after serving 22 years on Tennessee?s death row for a crime new evidence indicates he did not commit...
Six Days and Counting
Posted on May 22, 2008As most of you know, on May 28th, Judge Harry Mattice will set the conditions for the release of Paul House to his mother Joyce's care. After over 22 years of life on death row and wheelchair bound because of multiple sclerosis, Paul House is set to go home...
At the Death House Door
Posted on May 15, 2008On Thursday, May 8, the Memphis TCASK chapter hosted an advanced screening of the new documentary ?At the Death House Door,? directed by Steven James and Peter Gilbert. The film, produced by the Independent Film Channel, focuses on two individuals, Carroll Pickett and Carlos De Luna...
Death Penalty Cost Op-Eds
Posted on May 13, 2008Tennessee's State Funding Board has heard from experts that there will be a revenue shortfall between $271 and $380 million dollars. "State officials have been told to expect to cut up to $380 million more in spending before the fiscal year ends in June...
Resistance and Remembrance: Philip Workman Anniversary
Posted on May 12, 2008(Portions of this reflection written by Stacy Rector are taken from ?Pizza Resistance in Tennessee? in Hospitality (August 2007), a publication of the Open Door Community in Atlanta, Georgia) One year ago?May 9, 2007?the state of Tennessee executed Philip Workman for the death of Memphis police officer, Lt...
As Executions Set to Resume in U.S.: Another Death Row Inmate Exonerated
Posted on May 02, 2008May 2, 2008 -- Diann Rust Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, issued the following statement today in response to today?s announced exoneration out of North Carolina:?It?s been more than seven months since an execution occurred in the U...
6th Circuit Panel Hears Appeal in Case of Paul House
Posted on May 02, 2008A three judge panel in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in the appeal in the case of Paul House. Paul House remains on Tennessee's death row though new evidence indicating his innocence (including DNA) has been uncovered. He has been on death row for over 22 years...
Curtis McCarty Speaks in Knoxville
Posted on April 30, 2008On Thursday, April 24, I picked up Curtis McCarty from the Knoxville airport. We locked eyes as he passed through the security checkpoint and he flashed me a peace sign. As we shook hands, I tensed up--Curtis McCarty spent nearly 19 years on Oklahoma's death row for a crime he didn't commit...
Thanks to the Tennessean
Posted on April 29, 2008In Sunday's Tennessean in the Opinion section, the paper explored the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the constitutionality of the current lethal injection protocols. Opinions by Attorney David Raybin and Wally Kirby, director of the District Attorneys General Conference, also appeared...
Channel 5 Story on Paul House
Posted on April 22, 2008Last night, Channel 5 News in Nashville featured a story on Paul House and his upcoming release to the care of his mother, Joyce, while the courts continue to wrangle over his case after 22 years. The story includes an interview with Paul who is battling multiple sclerosis...
Amended Bill Passes Senate Judiciary
Posted on April 18, 2008Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee passed an amended version of the death penalty study extension bill, extending the life of the Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty for two months through the end of 2008. The original extension bill would have extended the Committee?s life for a full year until October 2009...
Justice Stevens Renounces Death Penalty
Posted on April 18, 2008On initial viewing the ruling in Baze v. Rees is simple--7 Justices upholding Kentucky's lethal injection protocols and 2 Justices dissenting that ruling. Underneath that count is a splintered court that produced a separate concurring opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens...
The Supreme Court Rules on Protocols
Posted on April 16, 2008Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Baze v. Rees case upholding Kentucky's lethal injection protocols as constitutional in a 7 to 2 vote. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justice Kennedy and Justice Alito, affirmed that "because some risk of pain is inherent in even the most humane execution method, if only from the prospect of error in following the required procedure, the Constitution does not demand the avoidance of all risk of pain...
More Paul House Media Coverage
Posted on April 10, 2008Media coverage of the pending release of Paul House continues to flow in. Click HERE to watch an interview with Joyce House, Paul's mother. You may have to look below amongst the other video options to find the interview with Joyce.Also, Sarah Kelley of the Nashville Scene has written an article on Paul House...
How Ironic
Posted on April 08, 2008Yesterday Judge Harry S. Mattice ruled that Paul House should be released to the care of his mother pending a hearing on May 28 to determine the conditions of that release. In his order he stated:The public has a compelling interest in the State not continuing to incarcerate individuals who have not been accorded their constitutional right to a fair trial...
Why All the Fuss?
Posted on April 07, 2008The Tennessean web site recently posted a story concerning the Tennessee DA's conference's resistance to the extension of the legislative Committee currently studying the death penalty in Tennessee. James "Wally" Kirby, Executive Director of the District Attorney Generals Conference, is charging that the Committee is stacked with death penalty opponents and that the Committee's true intent is to abolish the death penalty...
Justice Day on the Hill
Posted on April 04, 2008On April 2nd, TCASK members from across the state convened in Nashville at the state capitol to voice their opinions on the death penalty to Tennessee legislators. Last year?s Justice Day on the Hill was critical in the passage of Senate Bill 1911?a bill to create the Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty...
Number 128
Posted on April 03, 2008Glen Edward Chapman becomes the 128th person nationwide to be exonerated after serving nearly 14 years on North Carolina's death row. Chapman was wrongfully convicted after an investigator withheld evidence and lied in court and because Chapman's defense counsel gave ineffective assistance...
A Tribute
Posted on March 20, 2008By now, most everyone has already heard about the tragedy at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, with the murder of the student body President, Eve Carson. It appears that Eve was the victim of a random act of violence which took her young life and all its potential...
Write-a-Thon Final Tally
Posted on March 17, 2008Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you're not wearing green, I hope you get pinched.My favorite holiday, International Death Penalty Abolition Day, has passed. This year's commemoration of the day that Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1847 on March 1st was a special one...
A Definitive Cost Study
Posted on March 07, 2008When the presidential nominees give their speeches after a primary has been completed, they typically begin by thanking the state they are in. "Thank you Ohio." "Thank you Iowa." etc. etc. Today, I would like to say from Nashville, "Thank you Maryland...
More Harm Than Good
Posted on March 05, 2008There is a murder case in Knoxville that is attracting a lot of news coverage. The case involves the murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom aged 21 and 23 respectively. The state is seeking the death penalty for the four individuals that are being charged for the murder...
Another Write-a-thon Success Story
Posted on March 03, 2008All over the state, citizens of Tennessee gathered to celebrate International Death Penalty Abolition Day on March 1, marking the date in 1847 when the state of Michigan officially became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment...
Death Row Lotto
Posted on February 29, 2008Once again, Sarah Kelley of the Nashville Scene has authored another superb/eye-opening/troubling article on Tennessee's death penalty. The article, titled "Death Row Lotto" focuses on the randomness at which this failed public policy is applied, read it HERE...
Paul House Update
Posted on February 28, 2008Earlier today, Judge Harry Mattice held a hearing on the case of Paul House. What made this hearing unique was that Paul House was asked to be present at the hearing himself. Judge Mattice wanted to view his condition and hear from Paul's physician at Riverbend...
An Evening With Hector Black
Posted on February 26, 2008How does one forgive the murderer of their loved one? How does one find peace and reconciliation in an act of anger and violence? I have trouble answering these questions, but I am fortunate enough to know someone that can--Hector Black. Last night in Knoxville, TN, just over 30 folks at the University of Tennessee Black Cultural Center convened to hear Hector speak...
Shujaa Graham in Memphis
Posted on February 22, 2008Last night, Shujaa Graham, an exonerated death row inmate, spoke to a crowd of nearly 60 folks in Memphis, Tennessee. The event was held at Annesdale Cherokee Baptist Church. The pastor there is Rev. Dwight Montgomery. Rev. Montgomery is also the Memphis Chapter president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)...
Physicians and Execution
Posted on February 15, 2008The New England Journal of Medicine had an editorial recently on the role of physicians in executions spurred by the US Supreme Court case, Baze v. Rees. READ IT HERE. Baze v. Rees has called into question the current lethal injection protocol. The editorial explains the risk of the current lethal injection protocols in a clear and concise manner...
Race Matters
Posted on February 13, 2008Last night at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, a large group of students, professors, and other folks gathered to watch the documentary "Race to Execution." Rachel Lyon's film is a powerful documentary that "explores the deep and disturbing link between race and the death penalty in America...
Hector Black Featured on NPR
Posted on February 08, 2008Hector Black, an active member of TCASK, was featured on NPR's Story Corps today. With soft spoken determination, Hector shared his journey to forgivness after the 2001 murder of his daughter, Patricia Ann Nuckles.Patricia was 43 when she was killed by Ivan Simpson in her home...
Nebraska Court Outlaws Electric Chair
Posted on February 08, 2008The Nebraska Supreme Court this morning issued a strongly worded ruling striking down the use of that state?s electric chair. Because Nebraska has no back-up means of execution, this means Nebraska has no effective death penalty statute. This court ruling comes the day after a bill abolishing the death penalty cleared Judiciary Committee on a strong 6-1 vote...
TCASK celebrates its very own "good-looking do-gooder"
Posted on February 06, 2008TCASK's very own Isaac Kimes has made the Scene's annual Lust List. While we always knew he was a phenomenal field organizer and a passionate supporter of the movement, we had yet to fully recognize his "lusty" side. Thank goodness the Nashville Scene took notice and pointed out all of Isaac's shining characteristics...
Speaking in Cleveland
Posted on January 31, 2008On Wednesday, Jan 30, Rev. Stacy Rector and I were planning on speaking together at Northside Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, TN. Stacy would be handling the majority of the talk including the Biblical reflection of why the death penalty was wrong. I would be working a shorter segment, talking about TCASK and how folks could get involved...
Free Paul House Rally a Success!
Posted on January 25, 2008At 11:30 a.m. this morning over 25 concerned Tennesseans convened in front of the office of Attorney General Bob Cooper to ask him to drop his appeal in the case of Paul House. The weather was frigid--thermometers read around 13 degrees, even colder with the wind chill--but as the Rev...
Free Paul House Rally Friday (Tomorrow!)
Posted on January 24, 2008Free Paul House Rally Tomorrow (Friday)An Innocent Man on Death RowWhen: Friday, January 25th, Be there by 11:15 a.m.Where: In front of the office of the Attorney General (John Sevier Building), 425 5th Ave. N., around 5th and CharlotteWho: TCASK with Joyce House (mother of Paul House), Rep...
Don't Blame Us
Posted on January 22, 2008As I was reading the Tennessean yesterday, I came across an article on the lethal injection debate. Governor Bredesen stated that he believes the state needs to wait on the Supreme Court decision before making a move to execute anyone. I couldn't agree more...
Paul House's Life in Limbo
Posted on January 21, 2008Last Thursday, Isaac and I traveled to San Jose, CA for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) conference. The conference was great (as was the weather!), and we will be writing about some of our experiences there. However, in the midst of our conference, I received a phone call from Joyce House informing me that the state had appealed Judge Mattice's ruling which gave the state 180 days to try Paul House or let him go...
Murder Victims' Families Speak...check out the video
Posted on January 16, 2008The ACLU Death Penalty Policy director of Northern California, Natasha Minsker, sent out an email today stating that she had asked their members to send letters to the editor of the Sacramento Bee about the paper's coverage of the first California Commission hearing on the death penalty...
Buyer's Remorse
Posted on January 14, 2008Kudos to James Staub for his piece in Sunday's Tennessean. As a murder victim's family member, James' voice is of vital importance as the state of Tennessee examines the death penalty, particularly concerning the question of whether or not it serves victims' families...
Death Row Inmate's Mother in Painful Waiting Game
Posted on January 10, 2008Dwight Lewis of the Tennessean has written another terrific article covering the case of Paul House.Read it HERE!It begins with..."Sixty-six-year-old Joyce House is in a waiting game, and it's no fun. In fact, "it's hell,'' she says.
A Rube Goldberg Machine
Posted on January 08, 2008About 10 minutes ago my sister made me aware of this fantastic article from Time Magazine titled "Death Penalty Walking" written by David Von Drehle. I am embarrassed to say that she found it before me, but, she writes for Time Inc. so she has a slight advantage...
Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Lethal Injection
Posted on January 07, 2008Today, the US Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on whether or not the current protocols of lethal injection are in violation of the 8th amendment of the Constitution which bans cruel and unusual punishment. The Justices are not being asked to rule on the constitutionality of the death penalty which was determined constitutional three decades ago...
Let's Wait on the U.S. Supreme Court
Posted on January 04, 2008Yesterday, three Tennessee legislators called upon Governor Bredesen to move forward with the execution of Paul Dennis Reid who was convicted for the murders of seven people in the 1990's. The leaders urged the Governor to execute Reid by some other method available to the state, circumventing the controversy concerning the lethal injection protocols which will be argued before the U...
Another Great Paul House Article
Posted on January 03, 2008On December 27th the Tennessean published another great article on the case of Paul House written by Dwight Lewis. It can be found HERE. I did not get the article up sooner because I was visiting my family in Seattle over break. I actually just received a phone call from Paul's mother, Joyce House, asking if I had read it...
Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer?
Posted on January 02, 2008First off, I hope all of you had a wonderful holidays and are excited about 2008--it's going to be a great year! Also, if I had one New Year's wish I would ask that anyone that finds this blog interesting/informative share it with friends and also contribute with comments...
He's Not the Man I Met 10 Years Ago
Posted on December 21, 2007Today's Tennessean featured an article about the recent ruling on the case of Paul House. The article can be found HERE.The article is a good one and feature some notable quotes."I've spoken with Mr. House," federal community defender Stephen Kissinger said...
Judge Rules on Paul House Case/Poll on Tennessean
Posted on December 20, 2007Judge Rules on the Paul House CaseJudge Harry Mattice ruled just hours ago that Paul House will be granted a conditional writ of habeas corpus resulting in the VACATION OF HIS CONVICTION AND SENTENCE unless the state commences a new trial against him within 180 days after the judgment become final...
Tennessee Op-Eds on New Jersey
Posted on December 19, 2007A significant amount of media attention has been focused on the death penalty as of late especially with New Jersey's recent abolition. Much of that attention has been in the great state of Tennessee including this recent op-ed column in The Tennessean that can be found HERE...
It's Official: New Jersey Abolishes the Death Penalty
Posted on December 17, 2007Today, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (photo above, Jeff Zelevanksy/Bloomberg News) signed legislation that makes New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in forty years. The eight men on death row in that state have 60 days to decide if they will drop all their appeals and accept sentences of life without parole...
Present Handout at Riverbend
Posted on December 17, 2007Often times when I inform people that I am an organizer for an anti-death penalty organization one of the first questions I typically receive revolves around my visitation or involvement with Tennessee?s death row inmates. While I write some prisoners and am hoping to visit one in the New Year, I always feel somewhat disappointed when I inform folks that I have only been out to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution once and that was for an execution...
Congratulations New Jersey!
Posted on December 14, 2007Sometime yesterday afternoon, the phone rang here in the office. I was deep into "end of the year" financial stuff (my favorite) when Isaac told me I had a phone call. It was Sarah Craft, a friend from Equal Justice USA. Sarah quietly said, "Stacy, I have to tell you something...
New Jersey on the Brink
Posted on December 13, 2007"One hundred years from now I hope we will be remembered for having had the courage to be leaders in advancing this cause for a more civilized society," said Martin, R-Morris. This quote appeared in an article at Newsday and can be found HERE.On Monday, the state Senate approved an abolition bill...
Memphis TCASK On a Mission
Posted on December 11, 2007The drive to Memphis is 3 hours and very boring. However, the next hour and a half of my time is absolutely wonderful. This time is spent at the Emmanuel House meeting with the Memphis TCASK chapter?the longest sustaining chapter in Tennessee. This past meeting also saw another record being challenged or broken?attendees for our monthly chapter meetings...
New Jersey One Step Closer to Abolition
Posted on December 11, 2007Senators on both sides of the aisle voted 21 to 16 yesterday to repeal New Jersey?s death penalty statute, after a comprehensive study found that capital punishment wastes tax dollars, prolongs the suffering of murder victims? family members and is likely to result in wrongful death sentences...
Fairness at Stake
Posted on December 07, 2007The Tennessee study committee met for two days this week and heard a variety of testimony from local and national witnesses on the state of the death penalty in Tennessee. A few highlights:Libby Sykes, from the Administrative Office of the Courts which oversees the Indigent Defense Fund in TN, testified that since 2000, the funding for indigent defense in this state has continued to decline and is currently $1,000,000 less than it was in 2000...
Former Tennessee Death Row Inmate Found "Not Guilty" by Jury Today
Posted on December 05, 2007Huge news out of Chattanooga today. Michael McCormick, who spent 15 years on Tennessee's death row before winning a new trial, was found "not guilty"of the 1985 murder of Jeannie Nichols. Though Ms. Nichols family still believes in McCormick's guilt, the jury deliberated for seven hours on Tuesday and a couple of more hours today before returning the verdict...
New Jersey Close to Abolition
Posted on December 05, 2007On Monday, New Jersey moved one step closer to becoming the first state to abolish the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1976. A Senate budget committee approved replacing capital punishment with life without the possibility of parole. A full assembly vote is expected on December 13...
Bredesen Says No Executions Until Next Summer
Posted on December 03, 2007"Tennessee isn?t likely to execute any prisoners on death row until next summer, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday."This statement was included in an article from the AP and can be read HERE.Governor Bredesen delivered this great news this past Friday as three execution dates loomed in December and January--Pervis Payne, E...
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Can a tow company charge as much as they want to tow your car if it is parked illegally?
The towing companies contract with condo associations and the like to tow cars i...
I live on 10 acres in a "residental" area of homes. Even though we are not zoned commercial my next door neighbor obtained a variance from the county and is running a business. The traffic is right next to my
The time to protest was when the variance was being deliberated by the County. Y...
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