[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CALIF., TENN., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

May 3


CALIFORNIA:

Michael Franti Playing San Quentin Prison Concert


Outspoken Anti- recording artist and award-winning documentary filmmaker
Michael Franti will perform an extremely rare San Quentin Prison concert
on Saturday, May 19th at 11 a.m. With a theme of tolerance and
co-existence, the first gig inside the prison in 5 years - since
Metallica's 2002 appearance - will be held before roughly 2,000 inmates.

And Franti doesn't just want to just deliver his message of "Power to The
Peaceful on the Inside" to concert attendees in the yard. He is currently
in talks to allow the event - organized by Guerrilla Management and the
non-profit organization Bread & Roses - to be broadcast to San Quentin's
death row inmates via closed circuit television.

Preceding the performance, Franti will be interviewed live on Al Jazeera
TV's "Riz Khan" show next Thursday, May 10th, at 12 Noon PST. Al Jazeera
English is the world's first English language news channel to be
headquartered in the Middle East. It has more than 86 million global
viewers and can be viewed for free via www.relavista.tv.

(source: Glide Magazine News)






TENNESSEE:

Despite new rules, killer expects he will die in pain----Workman says
state 'didn't fix anything'


A Memphis man scheduled to be the 1st Tennessee inmate put to death since
the end of a 90-day moratorium on executions criticized the state's new
execution procedures, saying they would do little to ensure death is not
painful and inhumane.

"It didn't fix anything," Philip Workman said Wednesday during an
interview at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. "You
wouldn't use that drug to kill a dog. You can't move if you're in pain.
You can't bat your eyelashes. You can't do anything.

"All this is doing is making folks choose the electric chair."

Workman, 53, expects to be executed.

He admits taking part in a hold-up at a fast-food restaurant in 1981 but
denies firing the bullet that killed Memphis police Lt. Ronald Oliver
during a subsequent shootout.

During the interview Wednesday, Workman acknowledged that he could win
another stay of his death sentence, scheduled to be carried out at 1 a.m.
Wednesday.

But, in the long run, he says, it would make little difference.

"There's a bias because he's a police officer," Workman said. "There is no
way I can win, no matter what the evidence is."

His execution date comes a week after the state lifted a 3-month
moratorium on executions to allow prison officials to develop new
procedures for executions by injection and the electric chair.

Workman, who had already selected lethal injection, would become the 1st
prisoner executed under the new protocol.

Death date will be encore

During Wednesday's interview in a visiting area at death row, Workman wore
a baseball cap emblazoned with a cross and a reference to the biblical
verse Job 13:15:

The Scripture says: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will
surely defend my ways to his face."

Barring a reprieve, Workman will be moved Sunday from his death row cell
to "death watch" in a holding area closer to the death chamber. At some
point, he will be asked to select a last meal and make final preparations
for his death.

He has gone through the grim ritual on 3 other occasions, once coming
within 45 minutes of being executed before it was postponed by order of
the Tennessee Supreme Court. He recalled how a prison worker paced back
and forth near the cell, awaiting the order to proceed.

"It was nerve-racking," Workman said.

He has unsuccessfully asked Gov. Phil Bredesen for clemency in the past,
and he vowed he won't grovel for mercy again. "The governor has made his
position clear," Workman said.

He admits only robbery

But though he's resolved to die, he doesn't think his death sentence is
fair.

"I did an armed robbery, and that's all I should be punished for," he
said.

He points to a slew of evidence - a witness who has since recanted his
story, pathologists who say that the officer was killed by friendly fire,
and the testimony of a Shelby County medical examiner who was later
indicted.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office declined to comment.

Verna Wyatt, a victims' rights advocate, said the sentence is fair because
the crime led to Oliver's death.

"The deal is he's responsible for a police officerbeing dead," she said.
"There's nothing to listen to. He set everything in motion. That police
officer is dead because of Philip Workman."

Workman has heard that argument before but points out that Tennessee law,
at the time, wouldn't have allowed him to be executed for a friendly-fire
shooting.

He finds comfort in the belief that if he must die people will know the
truth about the officer's killing.

"I just don't like dying under a lie," he said.

HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW PROCEDURES

Tennessee's 90-day moratorium on executions ended Wednesday with new
procedures for putting people to death by electrocution and lethal
injection. Here are highlights.

- Separates lethal injection from electrocution. There are now 2 separate
manuals.

- Gives more detail about each step of the process. The new documentation
gives specific dosage amounts for the 3 drugs used in lethal injection

- sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

- Corrects clerical errors made in the old manual and added additional
safeguards. For example, the old execution manual gave instructions for an
inmate who was to die by lethal injection to have his head shaved and for
a fire extinguisher to be present, failing to distinguish between
execution by electric chair and injection.

- Includes more documentation and more checks and balances during the
execution process. There are additional forms for prison workers to
document the process.

- Adds people responsible for observing the entire process and documenting
what happens and at what time. For example, a new person, called the
"lethal injection recorder," will document each event.

[source: Tennessee Department of Correction]





(source: The Tennessean)

********************

Sides painted 2 different pictures----Trial centered on who fired the
fatal gunshot


If you believe prosecutors and police, Philip Workman was a drug addict
who robbed a Memphis Wendy's restaurant, killed a police officer and
wounded another in a deadly shootout.

If you believe lawyers for the death-row inmate, Lt. Ronald Oliver was
killed by friendly fire and a Memphis medical examiner lied during a
clemency hearing for Workman when he contradicted 2 nationally recognized
pathologists who believe the fatal bullet that killed the officer couldn't
have come from Workman's gun.

A police supervisor testified that none of the officer's weapons had been
fired at the Aug. 5, 1981, scene.

Harold Davis, the only civilian witness to the shooting, testified during
trial that he watched Workman shoot the lieutenant. He has since recanted,
saying he wasn't at the shooting and testified because he feared police.

Former Memphis Medical Examiner O.C. Smith testified that he was certain
the fatal bullet came from Workman's gun. Questions about his credibility
arose after he was indicted on charges of staging an attack in which he
was found with barbed wire and a bomb strapped to him.

After more than 2 decades on death row, Workman is set to be executed
Wednesday.

(source: Ashland City Times)






NEBRASKA:

Killer Says He's Ready To Die


Carey Dean Moore's twin brother, David Moore, said he was almost in tears
Wednesday night when he heard the news that his brother had a sudden
reprieve from Nebraska's electric chair.

"It's been Dean's wish to get it over with and he's tired after 27 years
in prison," Moore said.

On Wednesday evening, the Nebraska Supreme Court issued a stay of
execution for Moore, saying the court had to consider another case in
September that will have a direct impact on Moore's case. They'll consider
the constitutionality of electrocution and whether it's considered "cruel
and unusual punishment."

Moore said his brother Dean was ready to make the walk down the hall to
the electric chair next Tuesday. He said his brother told him he planned
to hold onto the arms of the electric chair so his fingers wouldn't curl
back. And Dean told him he'd be thinking about his daughter, whom he's
never met.

"He believes he's found God, so he's mentally ready for it," Moore said.

Moore was convicted of killing 2 cab drivers in 1979.

Moore's spiritual advisor, the Rev. Geoff Gonifas, spent more than an hour
with Moore on Wednesday, before learning of the court ruling. Gonifas was
thrilled with news of the stay and called the ruling, "answered prayers."

But Gonifas said Moore wasn't praying to live -- he wants to die.

"There's going to be a level of disappointment in him. He was ready,"
Gonifas said.

(source: KETV News)

*****************

Neb. executioners could administer second jolt if inmate survives the 1st


Executioners are prepared to administer a second jolt of electricity to a
death row inmate if his heart is still beating 18 minutes after the first,
state authorities said Wednesday.

Nebraska decided to use a single, sustained jolt instead of several
shorter ones after a judge rejected the old practice. But backers and foes
of the new method agree that it could leave the condemned's heart beating
well after the shock.

Under protocol announced Wednesday, officials would wait 18 minutes to
determine whether an inmate is dead. If the heart is still beating,
another 20-second, 2,450-volt jolt will be administered, said Robert
Houston, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

Carey Dean Moore is scheduled to be executed Tuesday unless halted by a
court order or the Board of Pardons. He notified the state Supreme Court
in March that he was ending the legal challenges to his execution.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha - who has fought for decades to end the
death penalty - wrote the state Supreme Court and petitioned the Lancaster
County District Court in an attempt to suspend executions until the new
electrocution protocol is reviewed.

In Lancaster County, Chambers alleges the state violated its own rules
requiring public hearings and state oversight when it came up with the new
protocol. Judge Earl Witthoff has been assigned the case, but no hearing
date has been set.

Critics say the new protocol is slipshod, pieced together with the advice
of a Florida doctor as the state scrambled to comply with a court decision
several years ago.

Dr. Ronald Wright said in a 2002 report there was a "high probability" of
the heart restarting after a single jolt of electricity.

Among the concerns about the new protocol is that the condemned could be
set on fire during a continuous application of electricity. Chambers noted
that Wright recommended that a fire extinguisher be nearby during the
execution.

"We don't anticipate" a fire, Houston said. "We have to be prepared."

Warden Dennis Bakewell said Wright assured prison officials that the risk
of fire would be minimized if the continuous jolt were held to under 30
seconds.

Houston said the electricity would continue for the full 20 seconds even
if Moore caught fire.

Nebraska is the only state where the electric chair is the sole means of
execution. The last execution was carried out in 1997.

Moore was sentenced to death for murdering Omaha cabdrivers Maynard D.
Helgeland and Reuel Eugene Van Ness in 1979.

(source: Associated Press)