The State of Tennessee executed Philip Workman at 1:38 am today. As expected, Governor Phil Bredesen was unresponsive to the pleas for clemency. Bredesen is the same poor excuse for a Democrat who yanked life-saving Medicaid away from 100,000 plus sick, elderly, and poor people. If your life depends on mercy from Governor Phil Bredesen, you are effectively screwed.
Workman's execution was scheduled for 1:00 am at the ghoulish Riverbend Maximum Security Prison. There's no word yet on why Workman died at 1:38, or why the local television stations did not break the story until 1:45.
But why do these barbaric state killings always take place at such ungodly hours? Is it to minimize the number of people who are exposed to the barbarity? Is it to make it easier for the state to control the story line the media takes away? If the state is going to practice the barbaric act of killing people, then we should all have the option of viewing it on our television screens.
The local television stations did not interrupt their regularly scheduled late night crappy programming until the killing was finished. The state's side of the story was presented to the media and no questions were allowed. Media coverage over the past few days has pretty well confined itself to the state's side of the story. If you don't get some of your news from the internet, you might never know that the prosecuting D.A. and the victim's daughter have pled for clemency because new evidence strongly suggests that the State of Tennessee just killed an innocent man.
Workman's last request was that his last meal -- a vegetarian pizza -- be given to a homeless person. The compassionate zombies at Riverbend Maximum State Prison said no. Prison spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said, "taxpayers don't really give us permission to donate to charity." You were expecting kindness? After killing another human being, denying a last request is obviously no big deal.
The human race is a fucking barbaric species. And that goes double during conservative eras.
That bastion of compassionate conservatism, the United States Supreme Court refused to halt the execution two times on Tuesday.
The one and only eye-witness in the case now says he lied. Five of the jurors say they'd never have sentenced Workman to death without the testimony of the eye-witness. Ballistics experts say the bullet that did the killing did Not come from Workman’s gun.
Last year Florida suspended executions after it took 34 minutes to kill a man, and Ohio had second thoughts after it took 90 minutes to end a life. The states use the same three drug lethal injection 'cocktail' that Tennessee fed Workman. It's been criticized as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Apparently, the cruelty is not in the killing, but in how you do it.
Vigils were held around the state. Outside the prison, some sixty compassionate folks gathered for a vigil. One of them, Jay Gilchrist, a lay minister in Nashville, said: "I wish our governor would wake up and realize that it just doesn't work. The death penalty doesn't deter crime. It doesn't save taxpayer money. That's for sure. And it's not a civilized thing to do."
For Philip Workman's side of the story see the video below.
Deadly Silence Proof Of Innocent Man On Death Row
Photo: Witnesses outside the site of the state killing gather under the cover of darkness, via The Tennessean
Philip Workman Tennessee Death Penalty News Politics Bredesen State Killing Death Row Execution Nashville Riverbend Maximum Security Prison
