That's the title of an article in today's New York Times. LINK
Philip R. Workman's execution date has come and gone five times in the quarter-century since his conviction for shooting a Memphis police officer. Early Wednesday, he was finally executed at the Riverbend prison on the industrial outskirts of this city.
The execution, the first since the state reviewed and revised its lethal injection procedures, came after a flurry of appeals from Mr. Workman's attorneys, who unsuccessfully sought stays from the U.S. Supreme Court and the Tennessee Supreme Court.
And:
Mr. Workman's case has received attention in part because it came so soon after the state's review of lethal injection procedures. Tennessee is among a small group of states that have scrutinized lethal injection, and Mr. Workman's case has thrust the state into a national debate.
Tennessee and most of the 36 other states that use lethal injection have a three-drug regimen that has been criticized. In California, a federal judge ruled last year that the state's lethal injection protocol violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Florida suspended executions late last year after it took 34 minutes for an inmate to die, and Ohio re-examined its procedures after it took 90 minutes to put an inmate to death last May.
Eleven states have halted executions to review lethal injection. The Tennessee review looked only at the step-by-step instructions for carrying out death sentences.
In February, Gov. Phil Bredesen stayed four executions, including Mr. Workman's, for 90 days to give the state time to review and revise its procedures. A lawsuit showed the written protocols as a hodgepodge of confusing instructions that Mr. Bredesen described as "a cut and paste job."
The state released the revised protocols last week and lifted the moratorium. Mr. Bredesen, a Democrat who supports the death penalty, expressed confidence in the revisions. Critics said the review should have been wider and more thorough.
The Nashville Tennessean has "Workman executed."
It was the 18th execution in America in 2007. Texas has carried out 13 of this year's executions. Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have each carried out one execution in 2007. It was the 1,075 execution in America since resumption of capital punishment in 1977.
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