Tennessee executed condemned cop killer Philip Workman today, reports The Tennessean. It was the third death sentence carried out in the state in 47 years. Workman, 53, was killed by lethal injection. The Tennessee Supreme Court denied a last-ditch appeal to derail the execution. Workman’s attorneys argued that the inmate’s execution date, just over a week after the state issued new death penalty protocols, denied him sufficient time to challenge the process.
Ruling just after 12:30 a.m., the court found that “Workman's challenge to the revised protocol has no likelihood of success on the merits.” Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant Workman a stay. A federal trial judge had issued a temporary restraining order until he could hear testimony on the new lethal injection protocol, but ther U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned that ruling Monday, saying the method is used successfully in other states.
Link: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070509/NEWS03/70509001