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NEWS & LETTERS, June -July 2007Execution of Philip WorkmanMemphis, Tenn.--On May 9, Philip Workman was executed at Riverbend Correctional Facility in Nashville, Tenn. At the prison nearly 100 opponents of the death penalty demonstrated against the execution, while in Memphis outside of Immaculate Conception Cathedral some 40 people gathered in opposition. Workman was convicted of the 1981 shooting of Lt. Ron Oliver during a robbery of a Wendy’s restaurant. While Workman never denied the robbery, evidence brought to light after his initial conviction showed that he did not fire the shot which killed Lt. Oliver. Only one witness, Harold Davis, claimed to have actually seen Workman shoot Lt. Oliver. But since the initial trial, Davis, who had a history of calling in false tips to police in the hopes of a reward, confessed that he perjured himself and actually was not present at the crime scene. An X-ray of Lt. Oliver’s body, "lost" for 18 years by the Medical Examiner’s Office, and other ballistics evidence led forensics expert Dr. Cecil Wecht to conclude that "to a degree of medical certainty" the bullet that killed Lt. Oliver could not have come from Workman’s gun, a .45 caliber pistol. Wecht’s testimony is based both on the size of the exit wound and on the fact that the bullet exited the body at all. Both are inconsistent with the gun and ammunition Workman was using. This and other evidence indicates that Oliver was killed by another police officer on the scene, an incident of "friendly fire." In fact, the Memphis Police Department has for years used this case to illustrate the dangers of "friendly fire" in responding to a crime scene! Five of the jurors from Workman’s trial, the original prosecuting attorney, and Lt. Oliver’s daughter all called for clemency for Workman. Clemency was denied by a Pardons and Parole Board appointed by Tennessee Gov. Philip Bredesen, and Workman was executed without any court having substantively considered these facts. Workman rejected a final meal and instead requested that a vegetarian pizza be delivered to a homeless man in Nashville. Prison officials denied his request. When word of this got out, people around Nashville began ordering pizzas to be sent to homeless shelters around the city. Workman’s request soon generated pizza deliveries to homeless shelters across the United States. In Memphis, a place of hospitality for homeless persons called Manna House served pizza to some 50 people two weeks after Workman’s execution. The mostly African-American men present told many stories of their experiences with police brutality and their times of imprisonment. The execution of Philip Workman illustrates once again how the death penalty is applied in this country as an instrument of state terror without regard for facts, fairness, or respect for human dignity. --Peter R. Gathje |
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