Philip Workman
Case Overview
Letters Asking For Clemency
News
Clemency Information
Facts of the Case
 On August 5, 1981, Philip Workman robbed a Wendy’s fast food restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee. Workman waited until closing, approximately 10:00pm, then pulled a gun and demanded that everyone move to the back room. Unbeknown to Workman, one of the employees had sounded a silent alarm. On preparing to leave Wendy’s restaurant, Workman saw a police car pull up outside. The car contained Lt. Ronald Oliver. Lt. Oliver believed Workman was an employee and that the alarm was sounded in error. Workman, upon seeing another police car containing Officer Stoddard pull into the parking lot, started to flee. A struggle ensued and gunshots were fired leaving Lt. Oliver shot in the chest, Stoddard shot in the arm and Workman shot in the buttocks. Lt. Oliver subsequently died of his injuries and Workman was arrested and charged with his murder.
The Trial
On March 30, 1982, Philip Workman was convicted and sentenced to death for the first degree felony murder of Lt. Ronald Oliver. Since the trial, however, questions have been raised and new evidence uncovered which leads to concerns of possible innocence.
Workman’s trial attorneys believed his guilt was a foregone conclusion, owing to both public opinion against him and the fact that Workman was a known drug addict. Consequently, they decided not to focus on proving Workman’s innocence but to concentrate on the sentencing phase of his trial. Workman’s attorneys did not request any type of forensic analysis or expert assistance on key factors of the case. They did not investigate the wound that killed Lt. Oliver, or the key witness account of Harold Davis. Further, they did not seek assistance from experts on the ballistics or pathology in the case. His attorneys also chose to accept police accounts that did not match crime scene reports. Finally, no investigation of Workman’s childhood and family circumstances was undertaken.
Eyewitness Accounts
The only person who claims to have seen the shooting was Harold Davis. Davis claims to have seen the incident unfold from only 10 feet away, giving him a clear view with a story that matched police accounts. Davis claimed that Workman calmly and deliberately shot Oliver from two feet away, as they stood in front of the restaurant doors. Workman’s attorneys did not point out that the shooting actually occurred in an adjacent parking lot. The prosecutor repeated Davis’ testimony to the jury during his closing argument, implying that Workman was a cold-blooded killer.
The only other police present during the shooting were officers Stoddard and Parker: neither claimed to see Workman shoot Lt. Oliver. Both officers said that they never drew their weapons or fired. Neither officer saw Harold Davis, who was allegedly ten feet away during the struggle. Parker testified at trial that the police had been warned to be on the lookout for an African American male who was robbing fast food restaurants in the neighborhood. Davis is an African American.
Workman’s attorneys did not question or challenge the officer’s claims that the only people shooting were Workman and Oliver. A civilian witness, who did not testify at Workman’s trial, reported seeing Parker shoot at Workman. This is supported by a Memphis police report, presented at the trial, which was drafted immediately after the incident stating that there was an exchange of gunfire between Workman and the police, and that “Officers” had been firing. The lead fragments that were removed from Workman’s buttocks were identified by hospital personnel as “shotgun pellets,” but could have been pistol bullet fragments. In addition, Stoddard and Parker claimed Workman had fired at least five rounds. Trial proof however, showed only three spent rounds and one live round collected at the scene, matching Workman’s account of the incident, which he offered before he had access to the crime scene reports. Finally a truck at the scene had a bullet hole from a .38 caliber round. Stoddard and Parker claimed they never fired a shot, and Lt. Oliver fell to the ground at a point from which he could not have shot the truck. Stoddard and Parker had .38 caliber guns, Workman has a .45 caliber. None of these factors were investigated or questioned by Workman’s trial attorneys. This lack of investigation led to the jury quickly convicting Workman of first degree murder, a capital offense. Other evidence of innocence was found after the trial. Please refer to the “Possible Innocence” section of this overview for more details.
Sentencing Phase
Workman’s attorneys presented no proof during the guilt/innocence stage of his trial. They told Workman to testify and admit his guilt, hoping the jury would grant him mercy. The lawyers claimed they would concentrate on the sentencing phase of his trail and present strong mitigating evidence. The prosecution went first, offering proof of five aggravating factors that would make Workman eligible for a death sentence. At the end of their case, Workman’s attorney waived proof. They did not offer any evidence. The aggravating factors, and absence of mitigating factors, meant the jury had no choice but to sentence Workman to death.
Background
Above and beyond the questions surrounding the crime, preliminary investigation of Workman’s childhood, family and upbringing would have uncovered a number of mitigating issues. Such mitigating evidence may have lead to his sentence being one of life imprisonment rather than death.
Workman’s family life, upbringing and childhood were far from ideal. Both his mother and father had abandoned him at an early age, leaving him to be raised by his grand mother. His father later returned and Workman’s situation worsened. Workman’s father was an alcoholic and regularly beat him. The beatings lead to Workman running away from home countless times before eventually being placed in Gatesville’s Texas Reform School. There the beatings continued, yet he chose to stay when offered release to his father’s home. The conditions at Gateville were so atrocious that the school was later declared unconstitutional and closed. Workman stayed until he was old enough to move in with his brother before then joining the armed forces, where his drug habit escalated.
Possible Innocence
Since the original trial, questions have been raised and new evidence found, which casts doubt on Workman’s conviction and death sentence. The main sources of new evidence came from medical experts, ballistics and an investigation into the eyewitness account from Harold Davis.
Ballistics
The bullet that killed Lt. Oliver entered his left front chest and exited out of his right back, striking a rib and passing through his heart, lungs, stomach and diaphragm. The bullet left a single path, and did not fragment. Further, the entrance wound was twice as big as the exit wound. This is supported by Dr Bell, who conducted the original autopsy, and Dr Cyril Wecht, a world renowned expert in forensic pathology, who consulted with the congressional hearings on the Kennedy assassination, the Symbionese Liberation Army shootings, and other high-profile cases.
The police recovered shell casings and Workman’s pistol after the shootings and found it to be loaded with .45 caliber, “Silvertip”, hollow-point ammunition. Expert testimony, not presented at the original trial, shows that these lead bullets are jacketed with a thin, fragile aluminum shell, and are specifically designed to expand upon entering the human body, stopping within the body. If they were to pass through the body, the exit wound would be significantly larger than the entrance wound: the exact opposite to findings in the autopsy examinations of Lt. Oliver.
The Sixth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals explained the small exit wound by opining that the bullet fragmented, and a sliver exited the body. The Court stated that, if the bullet exited whole, it could not have been from Workman’s gun. In 2000, nearly nineteen years after the original trial had taken place, the government disclosed an x-ray of Lt. Oliver’s body that showed the bullet did not fragment. The Sixth Circuit refused to reconsider its earlier statement.
Workman’s expert, Dr Wecht, recently stated in an interview that the gunshot wound that lead to the death of Lt. Oliver was more consistent to one received from a .38 caliber, copper-jacketed bullet, as used by Memphis police officers at the time. He also testified in court that in his decades of experience, he has never seen a through-and-through wound like the one that killed Lt. Oliver, caused by a .45 caliber silvertip bullet. Ballistics evidence supports the argument that Lt. Oliver was killed by friendly fire and not by a bullet from Workman’s pistol.
Eyewitness-Harold Davis
The only witness who claimed to have seen Workman shoot Lt. Oliver was Harold Davis. Davis claimed to have been outside the Wendy’s restaurant in the car park as the incident unfolded. No officer saw Davis on the night of the shooting. Davis was not listed on any witness list from the crime scene, and he did not attend a line-up conducted that night after Workman was captured. Subsequent investigation showed that no civilians saw him; three signed affidavits to that effect.
Davis’ statement was also in contradiction to that of Vivian Porter, a family friend at the time, who now runs a Christian recovery program for drug-addicted women. Porter claimed Davis had been with her on the night of the incident in a different location. Davis’ own sister stated that Davis had in the past received money for professional witnessing, i.e. being a witness to crimes he had not actually witnessed.
A critical piece of evidence surfaced from Workman’s new defense. His attorneys received photographs of the crime scene taken by a reporter immediately after the shooting. Harold Davis had claimed that he abandoned his car in the Wendy’s parking lot after the shooting, and returned hours later to retrieve it. The photographs revealed that Davis’ car was not in the parking lot.
Later on September 30, 1999, after an extensive search, Workman’s new defense attorneys tracked Davis down and upon confronting him with the new evidence, which placed his claims in a dubious light, Davis admitted to not witnessing the shooting of Lt. Oliver. He claimed that police made him sign a false statement saying he had witnessed the incident. Later after expressing doubts about testifying, he claimed to have been threatened at his hotel.
Conclusion
Evidence uncovered since Workman’s original trial casts substantial doubt on his guilt and indicates that Lt. Oliver may have been have been killed by someone other than Philip Workman. Since the original trial and new evidence, Workman’s attorney has traced eight of the original trial jury. Seven have now stated they have serious doubts about the case (in Tennessee, if one juror votes against death the sentence must be life). In addition, Workman’s attorney met with Lt. Oliver’s only child, Paula, and her mother, Lt. Oliver’s ex-wife. Both believe Workman should not be executed and Lt. Oliver’s daughter has asked for further investigations to uncover the truth about her father’s death.
Current Status
Workman, so far, has received three dates for execution; April 6, 2000, January 31, 2001 and March 30, 2001. For each of these dates Workman has received a stay that subsequently was overturned. A new date is now set for September 24, 2003. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal overturned the first stay by a split decision of 7/7 thus denying a retrial that would include the review of new evidence. Workman needed a majority vote for a retrial to have been ordered. A stay was granted for Workman’s second execution date only a day before the procedure was due to take place, again by the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeal. The Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned this on February 26, 2001, giving no reason.
For Workman’s third execution date a stay was granted 42 minutes before his execution was intended to take place, by a 3/2 vote by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Later, after a hearing in Memphis, the state Supreme Court refused to review the trial judge’s decision that expert testimony about the bullet wound and Davis’ recantation would not have made a difference to a jury. The Memphis judge disregarded the testimony of an original trial juror, Wardie Parks, who testified that he would not have convicted, much less sentenced Workman to death, had he known of the new evidence.
Workman’s latest execution date is September 24, 2003. As he has exhausted all other possible channels, Workman’s only hope of avoiding execution lies with the Governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen. In Tennessee there is a non-binding recommendation by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, but the Governor has the final power to grant clemency to Workman and commute his sentence to life imprisonment.
Letters Asking for Clemency
August 18, 2003 - The European Union has issued a demarche asking Governor Bredesen to grant Philip Workman clemency.
News
February 11, 2004 - Shelby County M.E. indicted; effect on Workman unclear
September 28, 2003 - 2 controversies: 2 pathologists under fire
September 18, 2003 - Workman says he's thankful for 4th stay.
September 15, 2003 - Death row inmate Workman gets 4-month reprieve from governor
September 4, 2003 - Workman seeks federal aid
September 4, 2003 - Workman's legal team says death sentence based on lies
August 31, 2003 - Gentle memories of Tennessee are sullied by this impending injustice
August 31, 2003 - Workman juror says justice is not being served
August 29, 2003 - Workman still has options on death sentence
August 29, 2003 - Attorneys for Workman hope governor will grant clemency---Defense to
distribute film, weigh litigation
August 28, 2003 - Workman's lawyers withdraw clemency request. Please click
here to read the letter.
August 17, 2003 - Next step in Workman capital case: clemency question
August 16, 2003 - Questions on Workman case
Shelby County M.E. indicted; effect on Workman unclear
A federal grand jury indicted the Shelby County medical examiner yesterday after concluding what has long been rumored — that O.C. Smith faked his own abduction.
On June 1, 2001, Smith was found outside his Regional Forensic Center office in Memphis. He was chained to a stairwell, wrapped in barbed wire and had a bomb hanging around his neck. He told officers that an attacker had thrown a caustic substance in his face.
The presumptive attack stumped local, state and federal agents. Then last year, Gov. Phil Bredesen abruptly halted the planned execution of death row inmate Philip Workman, citing an unspecified and unresolved case in the state's western federal district.
The development immediately put the spotlight back on Smith.
Smith had testified for the state in Workman's 2001 parole board hearings, and Workman's attorneys long claimed that the medical examiner perjured himself then.
Smith's attorneys repeatedly have said that the medical examiner never lied about the attack.
At the time, authorities speculated they were looking for a death-penalty foe angry at Smith because of testimony against Workman at his clemency hearing.
Now Smith has been indicted on three federal charges: illegal possession of a bomb and counts of making false statements to agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
While Smith's case winds through the federal courts, Workman's fate is unclear.
''The governor is making no statements tonight on the Smith case,'' said Bredesen's spokeswoman, Lydia Lenker.
Workman received the death sentence after his conviction for the 1981 shooting death of Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver. He does not deny that he robbed a Wendy's restaurant, but he says that he did not fire the shot the killed the officer who responded.
Shelby County prosecutors contend that the evidence that Workman killed Oliver is overwhelming.
Workman's attorneys said that with one of the state's witnesses charged with lying to government agents, their client should have his entire capital case re-examined.
''Governor Bredesen granted a reprieve to Philip Workman because the investigation of O.C. Smith raised serious questions about the fairness of the proceedings against Philip,'' Workman attorney Kelley Henry said yesterday.
''Philip Workman presented irrefutable proof, from the nation's foremost forensic experts, that he did not shoot Lt. Oliver. The only opposing expert witness was O.C. Smith. Smith perjured himself before the clemency board in Philip Workman's case.''
(source: The Tennessean)
2 controversies: 2 pathologists under fire
2 high-profile scientists, known to practice in gruesome settings,
brightly lighted laboratories and wood-paneled courtrooms, find themselves
at the centers of separate storms, one in southwestern Tennessee, the
other in the Nashville area.
The controversies leave a wide swath of Tennessee operating with medical
examiners who find themselves - fairly or not - the subject of intense
legal and media scrutiny. Defense attorneys whose clients are on trial, in
part, because of forensic evidence developed by Dr. Charles Harlan of
Nashville or Dr. O.C. Smith of Memphis are on especially high alert.
In Middle Tennessee, Harlan is a forensic pathologist who once served as
Davidson County's medical examiner and as the state's chief medical
examiner. He is now a respondent in a slow-motion hearing before the state
Board of Medical Examiners. The board is considering whether to issue
sanctions that could include his being stripped of his medical license.
In charges brought by the state Department of Health, Harlan has been
accused, among other things, of coming to incorrect conclusions in
autopsies, of mishandling evidence and of attaching a radio tracking
device to an unwitting associate's car.
Meanwhile, Harlan continues to serve as a forensic pathologist to multiple
counties in the middle of the state, performing autopsies at the rate of
about 400 a year, according to his attorney, Dan Warlick. Warlick has
characterized the state's 27 charges against his client, which include
allegations of unprofessional conduct, as "a witch hunt."
In Memphis, Smith has served as Shelby County's medical examiner for more
than 20 years. In June 2002, about 15 months ago, he was found outside his
office, wrapped in barbed wire and strapped to a bomb. He told police that
someone jumped him as he left his office near downtown Memphis. The
attacker, he said, splashed a caustic substance in his face before
wrapping him into a bizarre and potentially explosive knot.
Smith, who was found by a security guard, was not seriously injured.
The bomb prompted investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to step in, and as of yet, they have been
unable to determine who did the deed. They are still on the case.
While Smith has been charged with no crime, unspecified developments in
the case have apparently prompted Gov. Phil Bredesen, at the
recommendation of state Attorney General Paul Summers, to postpone the
scheduled execution of Philip Workman.
Citing a 15-month-old investigation, Bredesen granted Workman a reprieve
Sept. 15. Workman's execution had been scheduled for Sept. 24.
Neither the governor nor the attorney general will say which 15-month-old
federal investigation in West Tennessee prompted them to put a hold on the
execution. But there cannot be that many.
Smith was a witness for the prosecution in post-conviction evidentiary
hearings, testifying that Workman's bullet killed Memphis police Lt.
Ronald Oliver in 1981. It is testimony that is hotly disputed by Workman's
attorneys, who say Smith's scientific rationale for proving that an
aluminum-jacketed bullet killed Oliver was specious.
Summers has said that the case that prompted the reprieve does not
directly affect the central facts of the Workman case but that it is
related closely enough to give the state attorney general's office pause.
Still, he will give no details about the case that put off a lethal
injection.
The connect-the-dots doubt about Smith is obvious enough to Shelby County
Mayor A C Wharton. He is making immediate preparations to remove Smith
from his job, based on his understanding that Smith may be unable to serve
as an effective witness in upcoming trials.
Brian Kuhn, Shelby County's attorney, wrote Summers on Thursday:
"We are informed through recent press stories that Dr. Smith will probably
not be called as a witness as Medical Examiner in Shelby County Attorney
General cases. Assuming the validity of this statement, it is our opinion
that Dr. Smith is at least temporarily unable to perform the duties of his
office, if not totally unable to fulfill the duties of his office."
Wharton is asking his county health department to consult with the local
medical society to come up with at least 2 names to take the job, his
spokeswoman, Susan Adler Thorp, said.
Since then Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons - whose
prosecutors have for 2 decades relied on Smith's regular testimony and
whose office is still pressing for Workman's execution - issued a
statement denying that his office ever indicated that it would not use
Smith to testify:
"We do not comment on what witnesses we may or may not use in future
trials. At no time have we ruled out the possible use of Dr. Smith in the
future," Gibbons said.
Smith's attorney, Jim Garts, laments the momentum that is building against
his client.
"We were disappointed that the county seems to be taking this extreme
position and action on this," Garts said. "There's a lot of innuendo and
allegations floating around, and we're absolutely denying those innuendoes
and allegations.
"Unfortunately the county, through the county mayor and others, are taking
this hard-line approach, simply because there is an investigation going
on."
Smith's reputation as a pathologist is stellar, Garts said. He finds
himself defending a man who, after receiving threatening anonymous letters
in relation to his testimony against Workman, was bound one night in
barbed wire.
Smith still conducts autopsies for counties throughout West Tennessee,
just as Harlan has done for jurisdictions in the Mid- state.
Throughout the summer, for a few days each month, Harlan has listened to
the state present his case to the state Board of Medical Examiners, which
oversees doctors' licensing.
This autumn, Harlan begins to present his defense. The hearings are
expected to stretch, piecemeal, until at least November.
Among those slated to appear as expert witnesses in Harlan's behalf:
Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith.
(soruce: The Tennessean) - September 28, 2003
Workman says he's thankful for 4th stay
Philip Workman was making final preparations this week for his Sept. 24
execution date his fourth scheduled date in less than 4 years - when a
death row officer said he was needed "ASAP."
His attorney was on a cell phone Monday morning with stunning news: Gov.
Phil Bredesen had issued a surprising four-month reprieve because of an
undisclosed, ongoing federal criminal investigation into a case that could
relate to Workman's.
Workman was still trying yesterday to grasp the reality of the governor's
action, but he understood he had narrowly avoided another trip to the
death watch chamber where the condemned are kept in the days and hours
before a scheduled execution.
"I have a friend here who when he would see me after the other 3
(execution dates) would look at his watch and say, 'Hey, you ain't
supposed to be here,'" Workman said yesterday in a death row interview at
Riverbend Maximum Security Institution here. "This time he said, 'You have
more lives than a cat.' I said, 'I hope it stays that way.'"
The 50-year-old inmate, convicted 2 decades ago for the 1981 shooting
death of Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver, has claimed that his sentencing
was based on perjured testimony and important evidence to his defense was
not heard at his trial.
Workman was handcuffed and in chains bolted by a Master lock yesterday as
he discussed his thankfulness for Bredesen's action.
"A blessing, it's nothing but temporary," he said of the governor's
action. "But hopefully it's going to be just the beginning of some other
things coming to light. Hopefully it will lead me back to where all this
belongs, which is a jury of my peers with all the evidence this time."
Workman said coming so close to death on three previously scheduled dates
since 2000 has started to wear on him. The closest came March 2001. He was
less than an hour from a lethal injection when the state Supreme Court
issued a stay and ordered a hearing on new evidence.
With next Wednesday's date set before the governor's action, Workman's
grim routine he followed the other times began again. He washed the walls
of his cell because, he said, he wants them to be clean for the next death
row inmate inhabiting it. The restless nights and anxiety started to build
about 2 weeks ago, as it had before, he said.
On Sunday he met with his 30-year-old daughter and 2 grandchildren for
what he expected to be one of his final unrestricted visits. When his
attorney called Monday, he was packing his belongings neatly away so his
family could carry them off after he was executed.
"The anxiety level and mental chaos really starts going through your
mind," Workman said.
"You get a little disoriented trying to keep up with everything and trying
to have hope. - It's really quite tortuous.
It can almost drive you insane. Each time you would think it would get
easier, but it actually gets harder."
Workman has been on death row since 1982 for shooting Oliver outside a
Wendy's restaurant in Memphis that he robbed, leading to what prosecutors
said was a shootout with police arriving at the scene.
Workman has contended that it was not his bullet that killed Oliver. His
attorneys in recent years have produced a forensics expert who said he
didn't think the fatal bullet was fired by Workman.
Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith has testified as a state expert
that he thinks the bullet was fired by Workman's gun.
Federal investigators are looking into a bizarre attack last year on
Smith. Smith was discovered bound and gagged outside his office on June 1,
2002. He told investigators that someone had thrown a caustic substance on
his face and strapped a bomb to him, but he wasn't seriously injured.
Smith had been threatened in letters that accused him of lying in
Workman's court hearings in recent years.
Bredesen didn't cite the federal case that factored into the reprieve that
expires Jan. 15, but the time line of the investigation coincides with the
investigation into the Smith case.
Workman said he doesn't know if anything will come from the temporary
reprieve, but he knows it will allow him time to see his daughter and
grandchildren for at least one more Christmas.
He wears a purple ball cap with Bible passage "Job 13:15" painted on it.
The fact that he has escaped death again, at least temporarily, he assigns
to God's power at work.
"Every time they want to kill me, look what He does. They open a door,"
Workman said. "This time they've opened a garage door."
(source: The Tennessean)
Death row inmate Workman gets 4-month reprieve from governor
Gov. Phil. Bredesen this morning granted a 4-month reprieve in the
execution of Phillip Workman, citing a federal criminal investigation that
might be related to the case.
Although Attorney General Paul Summers said he is confident that the facts
of the case continue to support Workman's execution, he recommended to the
governor, in the interest of fairness, that the reprieve be granted.
Bredesen's announcement came today about 10:30 a.m. Workman's execution
had been set for Sept. 24.
Neither Summers nor Bredesen would give any details about the nature of
the federal investigation. Summers, however, did say it is being conducted
in the Western District of Tennessee.
Asked on the record if the probe is related to agencies in Memphis that
have been involved in Workman's case, such as the Shelby County medical
examiner's office, the Shelby County district attorney's office or the
Memphis Police Department, neither the governor or Summers would
elaborate.
(source: The Tennessean) - September 15, 2003
Workman seeks federal aid
After withdrawing a request last week for gubernatorial relief from being
put to death by lethal injection for the murder of a Memphis police
officer, Tennessee death row inmate Philip Workman Wednesday turned to the
federal courts in hopes that justices will call off his scheduled
September 24 execution.
Workman filed requests with West Tennessee's U.S. District Court asking
that justices overturn previous judgments against him, and that the court
allow him habeas corpus relief, which would require court officials to
schedule a federal hearing to re-examine evidence in his case. The same
federal court denied a similar request from Workman in previous appeals.
Workman's defense this time has outlined evidence they claim should
require new hearings in his case; specifically, attorneys are stressing
their position that 2 state witnesses perjured themselves during Workman's
1982 trial in Shelby County. State witness Harold Davis, who claimed to
have seen Workman shoot Lt. Ronald Oliver while Workman was being
apprehended for the robbery of a Wendy's restaurant in 1981, has since
recanted his testimony, saying that his memory has been affected by drug
use and he does not know what happened on the night Oliver was shot. In
addition, Davis has since claimed state agents threatened him if he
changed his testimony.
Workman's defense has also pointed to testimony that allegedly contradicts
that of a witness in the original trial who claimed to have discovered the
bullet that killed Oliver. Terry Willis, an employee at an auto repair
shop next to the Wendy's restaurant, originally testified that he found a
shell casing the day after the robbery, which the state said was the
bullet that killed Oliver. Workman's defense now points to the 2001
testimony of former Lt. Clyde Keenan during Workman's clemency hearing
before the state Board of Probation and Parole. Keenan testified that the
bullet that killed Oliver was actually found during police investigation.
Workman's defense claims that Keenan's testimony conflicts with that of
Willis, suggesting that Willis actually perjured himself during trial.
"There can be no justice in a capital case when witnesses lie," Workman's
defense said in the filings.
Representatives of the Shelby County District Attorney's office and the
state Attorney General's office said Wednesday they had not yet been
served with new filings in Workman's case, and did not comment. State
officials have continually noted previous court rulings in Workman's case
that have held that new evidence would not have affected the outcome or
his conviction of guilt.
Workman last week withdrew a request seeking clemency from Gov. Phil
Bredesen after the governor refused to replace or examine the Board of
Probation and Parole. Six of the board's seven members recommended that
Workman's 2001 request for clemency from Gov. Don Sundquist be denied.
Workman's attorneys claim that he cannot receive a fair review from a
board of the same members.
(source: Nashville CityPaper) - September 4, 2003
Workman's legal team says death sentence based on lies
Philip Workman's attorneys, their backs creeping ever closer to their
client's date in the death chamber, asked a Memphis federal judge
yesterday to stay the execution so they could argue that Workman was
sentenced on the basis of perjured testimony.
Workman was convicted for the 1981 shooting death of Memphis police Lt.
Ronald Oliver. Twice he has been placed on death watch at Riverbend
Maximum Security Institution, but both times he has been spared -
temporarily, at least - pending further court review.
Now he is scheduled to die Sept. 24. His attorneys are taking a set of
issues, long argued in state court, to a federal district court in
Memphis. These include claims that:
-The state's eyewitness at trial, longtime drug user Harold Davis, has
since recanted his original testimony. Davis said that he perjured himself
when he testified in 1982 that he saw Workman deliberately shooting Oliver
after a fast-food robbery. Davis now says he never was at the Wendy's
restaurant that night.
-After Workman's attorneys tracked down Davis years later and ultimately
won a bid to hold an evidentiary hearing before Shelby County Criminal
Court Judge John P. Colton, the state tried to lean on Davis. Before the
hearing, Davis was found in a Florida jail and the state made arrangements
to have him transferred to Tennessee. The defense contends that the state
secreted him to a city jail in Germantown and delayed letting Workman's
attorneys know that their highly stressed witness had arrived in Shelby
County.
This constituted "an attempt to manipulate Davis into testifying in a
manner which would hurt Philip Workman," the defense attorneys claim.
-The state has relied on false testimony about how a bullet was found at
the crime scene. The morning after the shooting, an employee at the auto
parts store next door to the Wendy's reported finding what he first
thought was a ball bearing, then later decided might be pertinent to the
shooting from the night before. It turned out to be a bullet from
Workman's gun, the state said.
Testimony from a 2001 clemency hearing indicates, however, that the police
actually found the slug, not Terry Willis from the auto parts store, the
defense argues.
"It was only through the lies of Davis and Willis that the prosecution was
able to convince the jury that Workman shot the fatal bullet and was
therefore guilty of first-degree murder,'' state federal public defenders
Paul Bottei and Christopher Minton said in yesterday's motion.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Bernice Donald in
Memphis. She has yet to schedule a hearing on the requested stay of
execution.
Lawyers with the state attorney general's office had not seen the federal
filing yesterday, said Sharon Curtis-Flair, spokeswoman for Attorney
General Paul Summers. Neither had prosecutors from the Shelby County
district attorney general's office.
Both offices declined to comment yesterday.
Gov. Phil Bredesen yesterday reasserted his intention to review the case,
even though Workman has withdrawn his formal application for gubernatorial
clemency. Workman did so because he did not think it worth the effort to
sit again before a state parole board that has unanimously voted before
that he be denied clemency.
"I treat each one of these as serious," Bredesen said yesterday of
death-penalty cases, ''and will evaluate if there is anything about the
case that justifies stepping in."
(source: The Tennessean) September 4, 2003
Gentle Memories of Tennessee are Sullied by This Impending Injustice
As a child, I always believed there was a magical quality to Tennessee.
One end of the state held dramatic mountains, the other, cotton-studded
deltas. The middle section blended the two extremes, with gentle hills and
rich pastures.
When we visited my grandparents in Alabama, I thought it was remarkable
that Tennessee's hardwood forests seemed to end exactly at the border,
giving way to "piney woods" and red-clay dirt. The people, too, seemed
special. Tennesseans, especially in Nashville, appeared tolerant and
thoughtful to my young eyes.
I am not sure whether the change I now see is in the state or in me. To be
sure, there have been profound events in the last four decades that have
affected us all. We are less naive, less trusting and less secure in our
world.
But I am saddened by the feeling that Tennessee has become a more cynical
place. My belief stems from the ongoing miscarriage of justice in the
Philip Workman case. His attorneys have withdrawn his request to Gov. Phil
Bredesen for clemency, and Workman faces execution in just a few weeks.
I was taught in law school that our society created a system of justice to
ensure that decisions regarding people's lives were reached objectively,
with reason. Workman was convicted of a tragic crime, the murder of
policeman Ronnie Oliver, who put his life on the line to protect society.
I know personally how the thirst for vengeance can cloud reasonI lost my
best friend to murder a few years ago. If the anger I felt at my friend's
death were the rule of law, we would live in chaos and anarchy. But our
system strives to stand above vengeance and visceral reaction, to reach
dispassionate, just resolutions. The more repugnant a crime, the more
cautious we must be to ensure that judgment is meted fairly and justly.
It seems that the government of Tennessee will have Philip Workman's
execution at any cost, and the first coin is truth.
Workman was convicted and sentenced to death after the key alleged
eyewitness lied to the jury. Photos, witnesses, police reports and now a
lie detector test all prove that Harold Davis was nowhere near the crime
he claimed to witness. Medical experts have declared that they do not
believe the fatal bullet came from Workman's pistol.
I have talked to the jury members, who heard the best of the state's
evidence at the original trial and who later saw the newly discovered
evidence, and they have said Workman deserves a new trial. The most
bittersweet moment I experienced as a lawyer was when Lt. Oliver's
daughter, Paula, and Workman's daughter, Michelle, joined to urge mercy
for the condemned man.
Bredesen responded to Workman's third plea for clemency by deferring the
matter to the Board of Probation and Parole, and Workman's attorney
withdrew the clemency request Thursday saying he could not subject his
client to this board. Perhaps Bredesen does not know what happened 2 years
ago when we appeared before Gov. Don Sundquist's board. In my personal
experience in courtrooms across the state and the country, I have never
witnessed a more biased and cruel process.
The board members are currently being sued for their conduct, which
included secret meetings with prosecutors before the hearing, vicious
attacks on defense witnesses and unquestioned acceptance of dubious state
evidence followed by the reading of pre-prepared clemency denials. It
would have been absurd to ask this board, which is the defendant in this
lawsuit, to be objective judges of the life of the man who is suing them.
I live far from my childhood home, now. Every day I miss the verdant hills
of Tennessee and its good people. If the state follows through with its
plans to execute Philip Workman, I can't help but feel that the magic of
my boyhood has been extinguished.
The injustice of sending a man to his death based upon lies and deceit,
and when he did not commit the crime for which he was convicted, will
forever erase the innocence of a very special place.
(source: Commentary; Jefferson T. Dorsey, who at one time was on Workman's
defense team, is assistant federal public defender in Phoenix; The
Tennessean) - August 31, 2003
Workman Juror Says Justice is Not Being Served
"Today, we pressed the flesh," Wardie Parks said. "We bonded in effort."
Parks, 61, who grew up in the Orange Mound section of Memphis and went on
to serve three years in the U.S. Navy before returning to his hometown,
was telling me of his meeting with Tennessee death-row inmate Philip
Workman.
"I had seen him in court and at his clemency hearing in 2001, but we had
never met," the 6-foot-1-inch, 235-pound Parks said. "Today, we had a
1-on-1 conversation. It was very positive.
"His spirits were up. His demeanor was great. For a man being on death row
for 22 years, it's a mind-boggling situation, especially when they've
gotten ready to pull the switch on you a couple of times.
"Wow! He showed me something today. And I assured him that 'as long as I
got breath in me and we can do something, I'll be hanging in there with
you and try to get you out of this situation.'"
Parks is one at least five jurors who now say they have doubts that
Workman should have been sentenced to death during his 1982 trial in the
shooting death of Memphis Police Lt. Ronald Oliver. Their doubt arose
after a key witness in the case, Harold Davis, recanted his trial
testimony in 1999 that he actually saw the shooting.
It also came about after Workman's attorneys filed for a new trial in
March 2000 based on an X-ray of Oliver's body that they say proves Workman
did not shoot the officer.
"I'm just a spokesman for them all, trying to get Philip from death to
life or home," Parks told me Thursday afternoon. "Anything other than
death."
Parks' visit in Nashville came a day after attorneys for Workman formally
withdrew the condemned inmate's bid for gubernatorial clemency. The
attorneys said Wednesday that another appearance before the state Board of
Probation and Parole would be a brutal waste of their time.
The attorneys said Thursday that the parole board, which voted unanimously
to deny Workman clemency in 2001, is strongly biased against their client.
They added, however, that they hope Gov. Phil Bredesen will still grant
Workman clemency.
"I don't understand why the judicial system won't consider the new
evidence that shows he didn't shoot the officer," Parks said. "It's
amazing how the judicial system can be like that. I understand the police
code, but they all (including the parole board) seem to be in cahoots
together.
"We're talking about a man's life. The only eyewitness to the shooting has
tried to tell the true fact that he lied about being at the scene of the
shooting, and the justice system is doing all it can to put him there."
Workman has not denied that he robbed a Memphis Wendy's restaurant in
early August 1981 or that he shot at police officers at the scene. His
attorneys have said Workman deserves a new trial because the X-ray of the
police lieutenant's body was withheld from his defense.
"As a juror in 1982, I had respect, high esteem for the judicial system,"
Parks told me. "I considered myself to be part of the judicial system. I
did my job. Now, I've become an enemy to the state by asking it to
consider the new evidence in the case.
"When the judge swears you in as a juror, you become part of the system.
He told us not to believe all that fancy lawyer talk but base your
decision on evidence and what comes out of the witness chair. Mr. Workman
had a public defender for a lawyer. He didn't have an O.J. Simpson dream
team.
"We handled the gun, every piece of material the prosecution presented as
evidence. The state had one eyewitness. That was the nail in the coffin.
22 years, later I am still a juror, and I called myself on the side of
justice back in 1982, and I am still on that side now.
"Mr. Workman will tell you he caused what happened, but the new evidence
shows his gun didn't kill the police officer. The state acts like it has
to get some blood for what happened."
I hope Gov. Phil Bredesen hears Wardie Parks' message. But more than that,
I hope he listens to it and that of the other jurors who now have doubts
that Philip Workman actually killed Memphis Police Lt. Ronald Oliver.
If it is indeed true that Workman did not fire the bullet that killed
Ronald Oliver he should not be put to death.
(source: The Tennessean) - August 31, 2003
Workman still has options on death sentence
Convicted Memphis cop killer Philip Workman still has legal options to
pursue for halting his scheduled Sept. 24 execution despite dropping a
request for clemency Wednesday.
Workman's attorneys said Thursday they have a 2-year-old civil rights
lawsuit pending in federal appeals court and still hope that Gov. Phil
Bredesen will grant clemency without the formal application.
State Post-Conviction Defender Donald Dawson made the surprising
withdrawal Wednesday because the governor's office ordered the case to be
heard by the state Board of Probation and Parole. That board unanimously
rejected Workman's last clemency request, under former governor Don
Sundquist, in January 2001.
Dawson said he does not want to submit Workman and his supporters to a
panel that he said is "diabolically unfair and vengeful" to his client.
Dawson and a juror from Workman's 1982 trial, Wardie Parks of Memphis,
made their case in a press conference Thursday that Bredesen should either
appoint a substitute board to hear a clemency request or exercise his
authority to grant clemency without the recommendation of the Board of
Probation and Parole. It was Bredesen's refusal to appoint a substitute
board this week that led to the withdrawal of the application.
"The governor, by the (Tennessee) Constitution, has the power to grant
clemency without a petition. Whether he will or not, we don't know," he
said.
Dawson said he has sent the governor a package of information that
includes the defense's 2 basic arguments: the only "eyewitness" to the
1981 murder of Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver has recanted his
testimony, and new ballistics evidence raises questions about whether the
fatal bullet was fired from Workman's gun.
The shooting occurred during the armed robbery of a Memphis fast-food
restaurant, which Workman admits he committed.
Harold Davis testified during the trial that he saw Workman fire the fatal
shot but now says that he was coerced into testifying to an event he was
not present to witness.
The federal lawsuit, now at the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, charges
that the Board of Probation and Parole, the state attorney general and the
Shelby County district attorney's office violated his constitutional
rights at the 2001 clemency hearing because it already had a
predisposition to reject a clemency recommendation.
Bredesen's press secretary, Lydia Lenker, said the governor will
"absolutely review every (death penalty) case."
(source: Commercial Appeal) - August 29, 2003
Attorneys for Workman Hope Governor Will Grant Clemency---Defense to
Distribute Film, Weigh Litigation
Although they have withdrawn their client from the governor's
request-for-clemency list, attorneys for death-row inmate Philip Workman
clearly hope that Gov. Phil Bredesen is still keeping a close eye on their
case.
Gubernatorial clemency is one of Workman's last chances to avoid the death
penalty, scheduled to be meted out Sept. 24 at Riverbend Maximum Security
Institution in Nashville. But after Bredesen made it clear that Workman
had to revisit the state Board of Probation and Parole before the governor
would review the clemency petition, Workman's attorneys balked.
They have withdrawn their application. They think that another appearance
before the state parole board would be a brutal waste of time for their
client, who was sentenced to death in 1982 for killing a Memphis police
lieutenant. State Post-Conviction Defender Don Dawson has called the board
"diabolically unfair and vengeful" for its past treatment of Workman and
his witnesses during a 2001 hearing.
The board has declined to respond to Dawson's characterizations.
"We cannot in good conscience put him through this charade one more time,"
Dawson said of another potential Workman parole board hearing.
The defense team, meanwhile, is weighing further litigation.
Workman's defense team notes that the governor retains power to grant
clemency, even without a formal application. Bredesen's office asserts
that the governor intends to review all death penalty cases, although it
will not elaborate on its views of the Workman clemency withdrawal.
"We certainly hope that the governor is listening," Dawson said yesterday.
"The governor, who we believe is a good man, has the power.
We hope he will utilize that power in this case," adding that there are no
"side avenues" between the defense team and the governor's office.
Dawson and his fellow attorneys have viewed the parole board's actions as
a coordinated campaign to deny Workman a fair hearing. One of those whom
defense attorneys single out for criticism is Shelby County prosecutor
John Campbell.
"When all is said and done and they're running out of things to say, then
the next thing to say is that it's a big conspiracy," Campbell said
yesterday. ''When you get down to the wire, I guess you accuse everybody
of conspiring. It's silly."
The attacks on prosecutors and the parole board, Campbell said, "are
diabolical and vengeful. And you can quote me on that."
Yesterday some of Workman's attorneys held a news briefing to repeat some
of their long-held views: They say that the state's sole eyewitness,
Harold Davis, has since recanted his trial testimony and asserted that he
was never at the scene the night that Lt. Ronald Oliver was fatally shot.
They add that several jurors, including Wardie Parks, have said that they
never would have voted for the death penalty had they known then what they
know now.
Yesterday defense attorneys played a short documentary outlining the
defense's case, a film they plan to distribute to the media, churches and
Bredesen.
Included were snippets from the January 2001 parole board hearing that
considered Workman's clemency request. With no discussion after hearing
the testimony, the board unanimously recommended to then-Gov. Don
Sundquist that Workman be executed.
In the past 2 years, Workman has come within 40 minutes of death and has
seen the state Supreme Court order a last-minute stay.
The state's high court ordered a Memphis judge to review new evidence that
surfaced long after Workman's 1982 conviction.
But that review failed to convince Criminal Court Judge John P. Colton
that a jury would have come to a different verdict had it heard the newly
introduced evidence.
And Workman is now preparing for his 3rd trip to a death-watch cell.
(source: The Tennessean) - August 29, 2003
Workman's Lawyers Withdraw Clemency Request
An attorney for condemned killer Philip Workman withdrew his client's
clemency request today after Gov. Phil Bredesen refused to change the makeup of
the board that considers such requests.
Calling the Board of Probation and Parole ''diabolically unfair and vengeful,''
Workman's attorney Donald E. Dawson said he can't ''in good conscience again
subject'' his client to the board.
The board heard a clemency request from Workman in 2001 and unanimously refused
to recommend that then-Gov. Don Sundquist commute his death sentence. Five of
the six current members were on the board for that hearing.
Workman was convicted in the 1981 shooting death of Memphis police Lt. Ronald
Oliver during a fast-food restaurant robbery. Workman said he didn't fire the
fatal shot and that other officers killed Oliver by accident.
The state Supreme Court granted Workman a last-minute stay in 2001, but he has
failed to persuade the courts to grant him a new trial and now is scheduled to
die by injection on Sept. 24.
''If my client is to die at the hands of state agents in a month, it would be an
additional cruelty to him to again subject him to this vengeful group,'' Dawson
wrote in his letter to Bredesen.
Dawson said the governor's lawyer was wrong to suggest his client was required
to present his case to the board.
The state Constitution ''gives to the governor the privilege of granting pardons
and reprieves. ... You can create whatever process you choose and either alone
or on the advice of your closest advisers make this decision,'' he wrote.
''It only must go to this corrupt and mean-spirited group if you say it must.''
The governor's spokeswoman, Lydia Lenker, said Bredesen will review Workman's
case.
''The governor is very clear about this. Every death penalty case is serious to
him and he will absolutely review each case. He thinks it's unfortunate
Workman's attorneys have chosen not to submit new evidence if they have it,''
Lenker said.
Donna Blackburn, administrative director of the board, refused to comment on the
letter.
Workman's new clemency request says a lie detector test indicates the witness
who testified he saw Workman shoot Oliver was lying.
By AMBER McDOWELL
Associated Press Writer - August 28, 2003
Next step in Workman capital case: clemency question
Gov. Phil Bredesen last week asked the state Board of Probation and Parole
to review Philip Workman's death-penalty case, and then make a
recommendation about whether gubernatorial clemency is in order.
The board has responded by scheduling a Sept. 11 hearing at Riverbend
Maximum Security Institute, where Workman's attorneys will attempt to
convince board members that the inmate does not deserve to die in
Tennessee's death chamber.
Yet, if Bredesen wants to know what most of the board members think of the
case, all he needs to do is read the transcript from the last time: In
2001, the board recommended with a 6-0 vote that then-Gov. Don Sundquist
deny Workman clemency. Since then, there has been only 1 new board member,
a Sundquist appointee from Knoxville.
Those prospects have Don Dawson, a Workman attorney from the state
post-conviction defender's office, trying to find a way to get Bredesen to
consider another venue for hearing the case.
"We certainly believe the governor should be fully informed," Dawson said
Friday. "This is not a decision the governor should make without hearing
from both sides. We don't question that it is an extremely important
decision for Gov. Bredesen. But we would hope that he is informed by
people who are willing to hear the evidence without predetermination and
without a preconceived decision."
The last hearing led Workman's attorneys to sue the board over what they
contend was an unfair process, a case that is still on appeal before the
6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the interim, plenty of other legal maneuvering has taken place on
Workman's behalf, including a state Supreme Court stay that was delivered
within minutes of Workman's scheduled execution in March 2001.
That stay instructed the original trial court in Shelby County to conduct
an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Workman needed a new trial.
The case began in 1981, when Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver was shot and
killed while responding to a robbery call at a Wendy's restaurant. Officer
Aubrey Stoddard was shot in the arm. Soon after, some fellow officers,
with the help of search dogs, nabbed a hiding Workman.
Workman does not deny that, after hitchhiking to Memphis, he landed at the
Wendy's. He does not deny that he was carrying a .45-caliber handgun. In
the course of the robbery, Workman herded the workers into a back office,
but while Workman was leaving, the police were arriving.
He tried to flee. He struggled with officers. The gun was fired, and
Oliver was killed.
Workman contends that he didn't fire the fatal shot. His attorneys have
long argued that Oliver was the victim of friendly fire. Since 1999, they
have zeroed in on the testimony of defense witness Harold Davis, who at
the 1982 trial described for a jury how he saw Workman deliberately shoot
Oliver to death.
Seventeen years after that trial, Workman's attorneys found Davis in a
California lockup. He told them he had lied at the trial. Davis, whose
memory has been fuzzed by a stroke and years of drug abuse, says he was
not at the Wendy's that night as he originally claimed.
Using crime scene photos, longtime Workman attorney Jefferson Dorsey
points out that Davis' car couldn't have been parked at the Wendy's that
night, as Davis originally described, because there is no car there.
Dorsey states that Davis originally described a shooting at the Wendy's
side entrance, not at the auto-shop parking lot next door.
"Philip Workman was convicted on the basis of a lie," Dorsey said last
week. Dorsey said that means that Workman's trial was "completely
corrupted."
Furthermore, Workman's attorneys contend that X-ray evidence, found years
after the trial, underscores their belief that one of Workman's
aluminum-jacketed hollow-point bullets was not the fatal bullet. They
think it likely that a police-issue, .38-caliber, copper-jacketed,
hollow-point killed Oliver.
Armed with new expert interpretations of the ballistics evidence and
Davis' recantation, the Workman defense team pressed for a new hearing on
the evidence. Less than an hour before his scheduled execution, the state
Supreme Court agreed.
In several phases, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge John Colton held
that Supreme Court-ordered hearing in Memphis.
The defense team put on its evidence about Davis and the gunshot wounds,
and the state called no witnesses.
Shelby County prosecutor John Campbell said Friday that the prosecution's
case does not hinge on Davis' testimony.
Workman testified that he fired his gun until it wouldn't fire anymore,
Campbell said.
Stoddard's firearm is still in the Memphis police property room, still
holding its unfired bullets.
Another officer who arrived on the scene did not fire his weapon, and
forensic evidence proves that Oliver wasn't shot by his own pistol,
according to Campbell. "There were no powder burns."
He thinks it's crystal clear who shot Oliver: Workman.
In early 2002, Colton determined that the new evidence wouldn't have
persuaded a jury to render a different verdict. He declined to order a new
trial.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals upheld him. The state Supreme Court,
which had stopped the execution to order the hearing in the first place,
passed on taking up the appeal.
Instead, it set a new execution date of Sept. 24.
So Workman, his efforts to win a new trial exhausted at the state level,
is appealing to another governor for mercy. This time, his attorneys
intend to introduce what they call additional corroboration of Davis'
recantation. Dorsey tracked Davis down again this summer in a San Diego
jail, where Davis submitted to a lie detector test that Dorsey says backs
up claims that he perjured himself at the original trial.
"Davis has had a stroke," countered Campbell. "He has been a drug user for
20 years. He says he cannot remember that night. His testimony, in other
words, has lost its forensic value."
Only now, the state has a new governor, a self-described death-penalty
proponent who says it is not his role to second-guess juries and judges.
Bredesen contends that his chief role in these cases to ensure that a
death-row prisoner has not been unfairly treated in the court system.
Key events in the Workman case
1981 Lt. Ronald Oliver is shot and killed as he wrestles with a robbery
suspect near a north Memphis Wendy's restaurant. Officer Aubrey Stoddard
is shot in the arm. Soon after, officers and police dogs find Philip
Workman hiding nearby.
1982 Workman, who doesn't deny robbing the restaurant, is convicted and
sentenced to death by a Shelby County jury.
1999 Defense attorneys track down Harold Davis in a California prison. He
had testified as the sole eyewitness at trial, but he recants. He now says
that he wasn't at the crime scene that night.
April 2001 Workman comes within an hour of being executed at Riverbend
Maximum Security Institute. A last-minute stay from the state Supreme
Court makes possible a hearing to determine whether Workman deserves a new
trial.
2001 Shelby County Criminal Court Judge John P. Colton holds evidentiary
hearing in several phases late in the year.
At issue are two key elements for the defense: Davis' claims that he lied
about being at the shooting scene and a noted pathologist's finding that
the fatal wound suffered by Oliver probably did not come from a
hollow-point bullet fired by Workman's gun.
The defense theory: Oliver was killed by friendly fire from another
officer.
State prosecutors call no witnesses.
January 2002 Not convinced that new evidence would have led the jury to
have ruled differently, Colton denies Workman a new trial. Workman's
attorneys appeal.
June 2003 Harold Davis, now in a San Diego jail, takes a polygraph test
at the request of defense attorneys, who say that the result show that
Davis is now telling the truth about having committed perjury at the
original trial.
Aug. 12 Workman formally requests that Gov. Phil Bredesen grant him
clemency. Bredesen will refer the case to the Board of Probation and
Parole, which during the Sundquist administration had recommended 6-0 that
Workman be executed.
Sept. 24 Workman's scheduled execution, set by Tennessee Supreme Court.
(source: The Tennessean) - August 17, 2003
Questions on Workman case
Tennessee is nearing an execution that continues to raise profound
questions about justice.
Philip Workman is scheduled for execution on Sept. 24 for killing a
Memphis police officer in 1981. Workman admits to robbing a Wendy's
restaurant and engaging in a gun battle with the police. But serious doubt
remains as to whether Workman actually killed the officer, Lt. Ronald
Oliver.
Some of the evidence used to convict Workman has since unraveled.
Ballistics evidence draws serious question as to whether the bullet that
killed Oliver came from Workman's gun. Expert testimony at a hearing last
year said the exit wound found in the officer was inconsistent with the
.45-caliber hollow-point bullets Workman used. It has been suggested the
fatal shot may actually have come from the gun of another officer.
Further, Workman was convicted, in part, based on the testimony of an
eyewitness, Harold Davis, who has since admitted that his testimony was
perjured. Further still, at least one juror from the trial says his
decision might well have been different if he had been presented the
evidence available today.
The state Supreme Court ordered a hearing last year on the new evidence.
However, after that hearing, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge John P.
Colton ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence to order a new trial.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has promised a full review of the Workman case. He also
has said he doesn't believe it is a governor's place to 2nd-guess a jury.
But in a case where a juror has 2nd-guessed himself and a primary witness
has admitted he lied, the governor has a duty to look at all the pieces.
Workman is a thief and obviously put police officers' lives in danger. He
has committed serious crimes, and he should spend the rest of his life in
prison. But the developments since the trial cast serious doubt on whether
he committed this murder.
Given the doubts that have long surrounded this case, the death penalty
should be removed from Workman's sentence. If the board will not make that
finding, the governor should.
(source: Opinion, The Tennessean) - August 16, 2003
Clemency Info
In Tennessee, the Board of Pardons and Paroles makes a non-binding recommendation to the Governor. Contact information for both is below.
Charles Traughber – Chairman
Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole
404 James Robertson Parkway
Suite 1300
Nashville, TN 37243-0850
(615) 741-1150 (phone)
(615) 741-5337 (fax)
Governor Bredesen
Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001
Phone: 615.741.2001
Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
Clemency Information is available for other states as well.
|
