Court Stays Two Executions

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed two executions Tuesday set for this week in Tennessee, the first scheduled in the state since 1960.

The Cincinnati court stayed Thursday's execution of Philip Workman at about 9:15 a.m., said Leonard Green, clerk for the court. Shortly afterwards, the court also stayed the execution of Robert Glen Coe 15 hours before he was to be lethally injected.

The full court will review Workman's claims that new evidence proves his innocence of the 1981 murder of police Lt. Ronald Oliver during a robbery in Memphis, Green said.

In Coe's case, the court wants time to review claims that he is mentally incompetent to be executed. He was scheduled to die Wednesday for the 1979 rape and murder of 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin of Greenfield.

The dramatic stays came as Coe and Workman seemed close to exhausting their legal options after two decades.

Coe's execution has been delayed twice since October, but on Monday the Tennessee Supreme Court refused to delay it further.

Workman, meanwhile, begged Gov. Don Sundquist's administration for clemency at a hearing Monday based on claims of "new evidence" showing that he did not fire the fatal shot that killed Oliver. Sundquist has not yet responded to the request.

"I discharged two, involuntarily blind shots," Workman said in a brief statement at the end of a nearly four-hour clemency hearing.

"I did say I know I shot Lt. Oliver, but I didn't know," he said, his voice quavering. "I just knew I better not try to make any waves ... or I would never stand a chance of mercy somewhere down the line, or some other type of sentence."

Workman said spending 19 years in prison has at least given him a chance to know God and he's ready for death if that is his fate.

"I have that peace," he said. "Nobody really wants to die, but if I have to die, I know where I'm going for the first time in my life, but I'm telling you this is wrong."

Medlin's family got word of the Coe stay as they prepared to make the drive from Greenfield to Nashville for a memorial service for the slain girl.

"I think these judges need to quit messing around and get on with it," said Mickey Stout, Medlin's stepfather. "The man has been convicted of the crime. He's guilty. He's competent, and it needs to get on."

Sharon Curtis-Flair, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office, said Tuesday there would be no comment on either stay.

Oliver's widow, Sandra Oliver Noblin, wrote in a letter read at the hearing that Sundquist should allow Workman to die and Christians who protest on the grounds of "thou shalt not kill" should reread their Bibles on "the real meaning of that verse."

"God allowed his son to be executed. God has given the government the right and responsibility to practice capital punishment.

"Philip Workman is not innocent of this murder. He killed Ronnie. He confessed to killing Ronie. And, all the bleeding heart liberals can protest all they want," Noblin wrote.

Coe and Workman each admitted to their crimes and were convicted by juries.

Before raping and killing Medlin, Coe said he had an urge to "flash" somebody all day on Sept. 1, 1979. He had a history of exposing himself in public.

He spotted Cary Ann and her brother riding their bicycles in a church parking lot in Greenfield, a small town in Weakley County in West Tennessee.

Coe, 43, a part-time auto mechanic, said he lured the girl into his car and raped her. After she told him, "Jesus loves you," he said he decided to kill her.

He first tried to strangle her, then stabbed her in the neck with a pocket knife. He said he watched the blood pour from her neck "like turning on a water hose."

He was arrested three days later as he attempted to board a bus for Georgia.

Coe's lawyers now claim he is insane and executing him would violate his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. He says his execution would also violate a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ban against capital punishment for anyone lacking the mental capacity to understand the penalty or why they are receiving it.

Workman, 46, was an unemployed drifter who robbed a Wendy's restaurant on Aug. 5, 1981, and fired shots at responding officers. Oliver was killed; another officer was wounded.

Workman said his former attorneys urged him to agree with police accounts that he fired the fatal bullet because it could help his chances at getting a sentence of life rather than death. He declared his innocence a decade later.

Workman now says he believes Oliver was accidentally killed by the other officers as they fired at Workman. The other officers testified they never got a chance to fire any shots.