Robert Coe was executed by the State of Tennessee for the murder of Cary Ann Medlin
According to court documents Robert Coe would abduct eight year old Cary Ann Medlin. The little girl would be sexually assaulted and stabbed to death
Robert Coe would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Robert Coe would be executed on April 19 2000 by lethal injection
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When Was Robert Coe Executed
Robert Coe was executed on April 19 2000
Robert Coe Case
Tennessee’s first execution in 40 years occurred this morning when child-killer Robert Glen Coe died of a lethal injection. The death of Coe, 44, came at 1:37 a.m. after a Nashville judge’s order forbidding the execution was lifted by the Tennessee Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the execution.
Coe was convicted of killing Cary Ann Medlin, 8, a few miles from her Greenfield, Tenn., home on Sept. 1, 1979. “The family of Cary Medlin is relieved and in good spirits,” said Steve Hayes, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Correction as he announced at 12:45 a.m. that the execution would occur.
Coe was moved to a closely monitored death watch cell at noon on Monday and on Tuesday evening had a last meal of fried catfish, white beans, hush puppies, coleslaw, french fries, pecan pie and sweet tea. Coe was given a lethal combination of drugs intervenously in both arms. Shortly before 1 a.m., Coe was strapped to a gurney and wheeled into the 15-by-20-foot execution chamber of the prison where intravenous catheters were inserted into each arm. He was given an opportunity to make a final statement before the deadly chemicals were injected. After Coe was allowed to make a final statement, Warden Ricky Bell authorized an unseen executioner in an adjoining room to begin the flow of a succession of deadly chemicals. Coe first was given sodium pentathol, a sedative to render him unconscious; then pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer to stop his breathing and finally potassium chloride to stop his heart.
At about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Davidson County Circuit Judge Thomas Brothers temporarily halted the execution, saying Coe’s attorneys’ argument that requiring prison health care workers to participate in the execution would mandate they violate the Hippocratic Oath that prevents them from injuring people. Because there has never been death by lethal injection in Tennessee, judges and justices were trying to determine matters of procedure as well as which judges had the authority to decide the issues raised by the defense before they ultimately gave the go-ahead for the execution. In addition to the issue of whether the prison’s medical personnel should be required to participate, Brothers ruled that there was a question about whether the lethal injection procedures follow state laws governing the setting of Corrections Department policies.
Coe told authorities he killed Cary after he abducted and raped her, then heard her say Jesus loves you.'' The execution occurred after scores of people marked the day with remembrances of Cary and protests over the morality of the death penalty. Dozens of death penalty supporters and opponents gathered in separate sectors outside the gates of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on the west side of town. In Memphis, protesters gathered on the steps of the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Midtown to pray and hear speeches. Also, a special memorial service was held earlier in Nashville's Centennial Park in memory of Cary.We’re just hoping this will bring us some closure,” said Cary’s stepfather, Mickey Stout, who witnessed the execution along with his wife, Charlotte Stout, Cary’s mother.
On Tuesday morning, about two dozen anti-death penalty activists were arrested for blocking the gate in front of the Governor’s Mansion. Gov. Don Sundquist, however, was vacationing in Florida. He was to return to Nashville Tuesday night prior to the execution. Late Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Coe’s requests for a stay of execution and review of the state’s competency procedures. After spending part of the afternoon saying goodbye to family members, Coe was served his last dinner.
Coe was the state’s first inmate to die by lethal injection, the 126th person executed in Tennessee since 1916 and the first since 1960. Under a 1999 law, he chose lethal injection over the electric chair. He also was the 29th person executed this year in the United States and the 627th executed since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a four-year moratorium on capital punishment. Coe’s execution leaves Tennessee’s death row population at 96 inmates, including two women.
Defense attorneys had argued up to the 11th hour that Coe was delusional, psychotic and incompetent to be executed. They had won three stays of execution in the past six weeks, but all were lifted after federal courts reviewed his challenges to the state’s competency procedures. Coe was born April 15, 1956, in Hickman, Ky., and lived in several small towns in Northwest Tennessee, typically in farm shacks with no running water. His sisters and brothers recalled on a defense-made videotape that the family lived in poverty and that the children often were beaten and sexually abused by their father.