Update 7/10/07
Deadly Silence July 2, 2007 9:11 pm
Deadly Silence is the name of the documentary that Molly Secours and Dixie Gamble created and produced about the Phlip Workman case.
Philip Workman robbed a zippy mart high on drugs and when confronted by police tried to surrender but the police commenced firing on him . A plice office was killed by friendly fire and the Memphis police department covered it up and produced a bogus witness to pin it on Workman. Read the whole story here:
www.tcask.org/cases/workman/workman.html
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Update 5/18/2007
Witness to an Execution
Evidence suggesting Philip Workman didn’t fire the shot that killed a cop was not enough to stop his lethal injection
Exactly what ensued between Workman and police in the dark parking lot that night is unclear. The only certainty is that someone shot and killed Memphis Police Lt. Ronald Oliver.
“I have never experienced a case with this many twists and turns, cover-ups and lies. This case started out with a lie in 1981,” says Kelley Henry, an assistant federal public defender who began working on the case in 2000. “It started out with police discovering a horrible truth—that one of their officers had accidentally killed one of their own.” And from there, the lies simply spiraled out of control, she says, but by the time these lies were discovered, it was too late. No one wanted to hear it.
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Update 5/17/2007
Workman lives on in the effort to stop state-sponsored killing
Early on a recent Wednesday morning, the Tennessee Department of Correction, in the latest of a series of bureaucratic blunders, declared Philip Workman dead. That is incorrect. Philip Workman is very much alive.
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Update 5/13/2007
On Behalf of Philip Workman—Send A Pizza
May 11, 2007
As you might know last night TN executed Philip Workman despite his claims of innocence. For his last meal on earth, Philip Workman requested that a vegetable pizza be delivered to Nashville’s homeless shelter. The Department of Corrections refused saying they were too focused on the execution procedures. But hundreds of normal people have stepped in and hundreds of pizzas were served last night to Nashville’s homeless community in Philip Workman’s name.
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Update 5/9/2007
“(AP) Tennessee executes Philip Workman by lethal injection”
Philip Workman, 53, was composed as curtains were pulled back to show him strapped to the gurney in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
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Update 5/7/2007
Monday, 05/07/07
Judges turn down appeal by Workman
Separate stay still halts cop killer’s execution
Death row inmate Philip Workman’s attempt to show he was wrongly convicted and therefore should not be executed has been rejected by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a separate plea, Workman got a stay of execution Friday from a federal district judge in Nashville.
Campbell’s order expires May 14, when another court hearing on the method of execution is scheduled. The state is reviewing the order to decide whether to appeal it. Kelley Henry, Workman’s lawyer, said she expects the attorney general to file the appeal this morning.
In the court of appeals case, Workman’s lawyers were trying to show he was falsely convicted of killing Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver in a shootout during a 1981 robbery of a fast-food restaurant.
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Update 5/6/2007
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=//OPINION02//1053
Sunday, 05/06/07
Facts in Workman case don’t lead to execution
To the Editor:
Taking the life of a human being is always questionable. But Philip Workman’s execution displays indifference to the value of human life and to the facts of the case that is stunning.
The key prosecution witness, Harold Davis, has admitted that he was not at the scene of the crime. He was subsequently convicted of perjury. Furthermore, ballistics experts have concluded that “to a degree of medical certainty” the bullet that killed Lt. Oliver did not come from Workman’s gun.
Consequently, five of the original jurors on the case have signed affidavits saying they would not have sentenced Workman to death had they known that Davis was lying.
Since it only takes one juror’s objection to prevent a death sentence, Workman would not have been sentenced to death had all the evidence been available at the time of the trial. In addition, Lt. Oliver’s daughter has asked the governor for clemency for Philip Workman.
The execution is scheduled based on the lie of one person. No person should ever be executed based on a lie. Philip Workman’s case is yet another piece of evidence that Tennessee’s death penalty system is severely flawed.
This supports the findings of the American Bar Association according to which Tennessee complies only with seven of the 93 benchmarks for death penalty.
Under circumstances like this, the governor must call for a moratorium and not schedule an execution.
Christina Moeckel, Brentwood 37027
Update 5/4/2007
“Philip Workman’s Scheduled Execution Stayed”
A federal judge in Nashville delayed the scheduled execution of Philip Workman Friday afternoon.
The convicted killer was scheduled to die by lethal injection early next Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell ruled shortly after Workman’s attorneys asked for a delay on grounds they did not have time to file complaints against new execution procedures.
The new guidelines were released Wednesday.
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Update 5/3/2007
Exclusive Interview With Condemned Killer Philip Workman
“Exclusive Interview With Condemned Killer Philip Workman”
Barring a stay from the courts, condemned killer Philip Workman will move to deathwatch this weekend .
The state plans to execute Workman next Wednesday for the 1981 murder of a Memphis police officer.
Workman’s attorneys have asked the federal appeals court to step in, claiming perjured testimony helped seal Workman’s conviction. The defense also contends the state withheld evidence during Workman’s trial.
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5/1/2007
Tennessee death row inmate Workman appeals for stay of execution
By ROSE FRENCH
Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Attorneys for convicted death row inmate Phillip Workman asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to stay his execution set for next Wednesday.
His defense team is also reviewing revised execution rules released by the state on Monday to decide whether they should be challenged in court, said Kelley Henry, a federal public defender representing Workman.
Workman, 53, has two appeals pending before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. His lawyers requested the stay of execution claiming he was convicted on perjured testimony and that the state withheld evidence that would have established Workman’s innocence, Henry said.
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Deadly Silence
This short film by Nashville filmmakers Dixie Gamble and Molly Secours documents mounting evidence suggesting Philip Workman did not fire the fatal bullet that landed him on Tennessee’s death row. Since Workman was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a Memphis police officer in 1981, the prosecution’s star witness has recanted his claim that he witnessed the shooting, admitting he wasn’t even at the scene. Ballistics evidence also has shown that the fatal bullet almost certainly could not have come from Workman’s gun, suggesting the victim was mistakenly shot by a fellow officer, and that police framed Workman to cover up what really happened.
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Tennessee will lift ban on executions
Defense attorneys say new rules for injection are still inhumane
Tennessee is ready to resume executions under new rules it released Monday, using a three-drug lethal injection method opponents say is still inhumane and unconstitutional.
Gov. Phil Bredesen will lift a 90-day moratorium on executions on Wednesday. Philip Workman, convicted of killing a Memphis police officer, is scheduled to die May 9.
“It’s essentially the same protocol as before, with a little window dressing,” Nashville attorney Brad MacLean said.
Among the complaints MacLean and other defense lawyers have about the execution method is the use of three chemicals to kill inmates.
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Giltner Review 