Death penalty delay sought by lawmakers

Amy Staples, center, chairwoman of the Tennessee Coalition Against State Killing, speaks with state Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, in Legislative Plaza. (T-G Photo by Clint Confehr) [Click to enlarge]

NASHVILLE -- State lawmakers are being asked to create a death penalty study committee and stop executions for three years.

Bedford County's delegation has no objection to studying the subject, but both lawmakers from Shelbyville oppose legislation stalling executions.

Two men are on death row because of five murders in two cases involving Bedford County. Both have been tied up in appeals for years, and last week the Tennessee Supreme Court set a May 17 execution date for the killer in a Shelby County murder.

"We want a three-year moratorium on executions while the state conducts a complete study of the death penalty system in Tennessee," said Amy Staples, chair of the State Board of the Tennessee Coalition Against State Killing (TCASK).

Staples and other coalition members lobbied state Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) last week when she said the proposed study committee should, among other things, "look at how people with mental illnesses are treated by the system and their ability to help with their defense."

On that issue, a state Supreme Court decision remains pending in the case of Daryl Holton, 45, who was living in a Shelbyville garage where he shot his four children nearly seven years ago. Two months ago, the high court was asked to consider whether Holton made a competent waiver of his rights to resist execution. The Attorney General's office questioned the Post Conviction Relief Office's authority to speak up for Holton who's refused to speak with anyone other than his mother.

"I don't think he made any contribution to his defense because he wants the state to kill him," Staples said.

Records show that after leaving military service, Holton concluded his children would be raised in a broken home, so he killed them, planned to go to Rutherford County and kill their mother and himself, but realized if he died, he couldn't explain himself, so he surrendered to lawmen in Shelbyville.

Holton apparently still wants to die, but Staples said, "I don't think the state should be in the business of killing its citizens and making life and death decisions because the system is human and fallible."

Modern medical analysis of old evidence is another reason she gave to study death penalty cases.

Paul Gregory House of Union County is on death row for the death of Carolyn Muncey 20 years ago, before DNA evidence was available, Staples said.

"So, the court didn't hear it [DNA evidence] or six witnesses who say Herbert Muncey killed his wife by accident," Staples said.

She's awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision since it heard arguments in January.

"I'm for capital punishment, but I don't want to put innocent people to death," Tracy said Wednesday, indicating he'd speak with the state corrections commissioner and/or his staff about legislation advocated by TCASK since he's on the Joint Corrections Oversight Committee.

Friday, he said he opposes a moratorium on executions.

As does state Rep. Curt Cobb (D-Shelbyville).

"A moratorium will be like stopping it," Cobb said. "It would be harder to restart the system rather than to decide to have a moratorium.

"We can study it, but I don't think we should do a moratorium to study it," he said.

"I'm pro-life on abortion, but ... I'm the son of a judge and was raised on this philosophy. You have to have a firm penalty like the death penalty to deter heinous crimes. In the long run, I believe it will save lives."

The state representative's father was 17th Judicial District Chancellor Tyrus "Ty" Cobb who served on the bench during 1979-1999 and was a state representative in 1963-1967. He died in December 2003.

"When you take a life, you need to know that the courts can take yours," Curt Cobb said. "I feel real confident in our judicial system."

The State Supreme Court on Wednesday set May 17 as the execution date of Sedley Alley for the 1985 rape and murder of 19-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Suzanne M. Collins at the Millington Naval Air Station near Memphis. Alley's case went through federal district and appeals courts in 2004. In January 2005, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected the state's request for another execution date for Alley because of a federal court debate on federal rules for execution.

Bedford County residents probably know more about the death penalty case arising from the stabbing death of Brenda Blanton Lane more than 21 years ago at the hands of Gregory Thompson. The most recent appeal on his behalf is being considered by U.S. District Court Judge R. Allan Edgar in Chattanooga after two execution dates had been stayed.

There's been no indication on what Edgar will do since Feb. 3 when he ordered Thompson's removal from Death Watch so there would be time for more lawyers' briefs and for him to have ample opportunity to fully review the case. Thompson was scheduled to die Feb. 7.

Both Staples and Barbara Brown, Lane's sister, said they had no information on when the judge might rule on Thompson's case.

Brown is Lane's only relative eligible to witness Thompson's execution. As such, she's usually advised of developments in Thompson's case by a victims liaison officer.

"Her sister was, obviously, a wonderful person," Staples said, having read about Lane and Brown, and concluding she believes forgiveness dwells in the souls of the sisters.

"Execution will never take the place of the loss of her sister," Staples said.

Brown has said she doesn't think execution would give her satisfaction, but it might provide "closure." Others have lamented the passage of two decades with no conclusion since Thompson's conviction.

Lane was murdered nearly two years after working as a reporter for the Times-Gazette. She was employed with United Methodist Communications in Nashville at the time of her death.

Thompson and his girlfriend abducted Lane in a local shopping center parking lot to get her car so they could drive to Marietta, Ga. Lane was killed in Coffee County.

Brown had no comment on the proposed moratorium on executions while the death penalty is studied.

State Rep. Beverly Marrero (D-Memphis) is sponsoring the bill advocated by TCASK.

Tracy says the bill probably won't pass this year and will face a new session of the Legislature next year.

The bill calls for a Death Penalty Fairness Study Committee to address 14 or more issues such as: the presence of innocent people on death row in this state; adequacy of defense attorneys in such cases; a comparison of costs for executive versus those of life in prison without parole; geographic and socioeconomic disparities in the imposition of the death penalty; the risk of innocent people being executed; and, among other things, prosecutorial misconduct or judicial error as a factor in the imposition of the death penalty.

The 15-member committee would include state lawmakers, lawyers from the Tennessee Bar Association, the Attorney General's office, the District Attorneys General Conference, Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; a public defender; a representative of the Tennessee Coalition for Mental Health and Substance Abuse services, and among others, a Tennessee resident who would represent the Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights.

The proposed law states that the committee shall report in no less than three years after the act becomes law, and when the report is received by the General Assembly, the committee dissolves and the act, including the moratorium, would be repealed.