Philip Workman was executed by the State of Tennessee for the murder of a police officer
According to court documents Philip Workman had just robbed a restaurant and was leaving the premise when he was approached by Memphis Police Lieutenant Ronald Oliver. Workman would shoot the Officer in the chest and shoot and injure Officer Aubrey Stoddard
Philip Workman was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Philip Workman would be executed by lethal injection on May 9 2007
Philip Workman Photos
Philip Workman FAQ
When Was Philip Workman Executed
Philip Workman was executed on May 9 2007
Philip Workman Case
The state executed condemned cop killer Philip Workman in a West Nashville prison early today in the third death sentence carried out in Tennessee in 47 years. Workman, 53, was pronounced dead at 1:38 a.m. after a lethal cocktail of drugs was injected into his body as he lay strapped to a gurney at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Workman’s last words were brief. “I’ve prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ not to lay charge of my death to any man,” Workman said. About two minutes later, with his eyes closed as he gulped, somewhat nervously, Workman uttered a final statement: “I commend my spirit into your hands Lord Jesus Christ.” He then turned his head slightly to the left and lay motionless, as an ashen color overtook his face.
Workman’s arms, legs and midsection were strapped to the gurney. He wore white prison pants and a cream prison top. An intraveneous line was attached to his right arm. The drugs were administered by a person in another room and pumped through a tube that appeared be fed through a prison wall.
Warden Ricky Bell, dressed in a black suit, stood at the head of the gurney, his hands clasped throughout most of the 17-minute process. Minutes after Workman’s last words, prison officials drew shut the brown blinds over the window separating witnesses from the execution chamber. Bell then spoke through a microphone and pronounced Workman dead.
Workman was executed nearly 25 years to the day of his conviction in the 1981 shooting death of Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver.
Authorities say Workman fired the fatal shot during a botched robbery at a Wendy’s hamburger restaurant. But the condemned and his supporters maintained until the end that it was not his bullet that killed Oliver, instead suggesting that another police officer inadvertently shot Oliver during the chaos of the moment.
Oliver’s family members, including his widow, were just feet away from Workman, watching the through a glass window as the deadly drugs were fed into his arm. The Oliver family declined to comment, but a victim’s rights advocate with the group “You Have the Power” addressed reporters after the execution. “Though a sentence has finally been carried out, nothing will happen that will ever provide them closure,” said Valerie Craig, who spoke for the family.
Workman’s family was not present during the execution. His brother had planned to attend but backed out Tuesday evening.
Two hours before his death sentence was to be carried out, Workman asked the state’s highest court to delay his execution but the Tennessee Supreme Court denied the appeal. In the last ditch filing, Workman’s lawyers argued that the inmate’s execution date, coming just over a week after the state issued new death penalty protocols, denied him sufficient time to challenge the process. “There is a growing body of medical, scientific, and other evidence which clearly shows that lethal injection using (the proscribed combination of drugs) without monitoring of anesthetic depth risks torture,” his lawyers wrote.
But in an unsigned ruling issued just after 12:30 a.m., the state Supreme Court found that “Workman’s challenge to the revised protocol has no likelihood of success on the merits.” “At some point, the State has a right to impose a sentence not just because the State’s interests in finality are compelling, but also because there is a ‘powerful and legitimate interest in punishing the guilty…,'” the ruling states. “After twenty-five years and countless court proceedings, that time has come.” Workman’s lawyers worked furiously to stop the execution.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant Workman a stay. His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court after requests for a delay were rejected by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell issued a temporary restraining order until he could hear testimony on the new lethal injection protocol the state planned to use in Workman’s execution. But the circuit court overturned that ruling Monday saying the method is used successfully in other states. As the day wore on yesterday, Workman asked the U.S. District Court in Nashville to release his body to his brother immediately after his death and not allow an autopsy to be performed. Judge Campbell later issued a temporary injunction ordering the state not to autopsy Workman’s body at least until a hearing can be held on May 14.
Workman met with family, friends and a spiritual advisor yesterday, said Dorinda Carter, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Correction.
At one point, he asked that a vegetarian pizza be purchased and donated for his last meal, but prison officials refused. “He instructed that it be given to a homeless person but we’re not able to do that,” Carter said. Instead, Workman decided to skip dinner on the eve of his execution. “He could have had food from the cafeteria that the other inmates were having tonight,” she said.
Outside the prison, about 60 anti-death penalty protestors gathered for a vigil. As the time for a reprieve grew short, some of the protestors said they had lost hope that his life would be spared. “My spirit has hope but my worldly mind says there’s not much hope,” said Alonzo Fortune, a Nashville man who opposes the death penalty. The group was singing and holding hands in a circle while standing in a fenced-off grass field.
Inside the prison, Workman was on death-watch, just feet away from the death chamber. “I wish our governor would wake up and realize that it just doesn’t work,” said Jay Gilchrist, a lay minister in Nashville. “The death penalty doesn’t deter crime. It doesn’t save taxpayer money. That’s for sure. And it’s not a civilized thing to do.”
Workman joins Robert Glen Coe (executed in April 2000) and Sedley Alley (executed in June 2006) as only the third person executed by the state of Tennessee since 1960.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007705090013
