Bredesen to Send Clemency Request to Discredited Pardons & Parole Board

Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing
P.O. Box 120552
Nashville, TN  37212
615-329-0048
e-mail: tcask@earthlink.net
http://www.tcask.org
Promoting Alternatives to Capital Punishment in Tennessee

For Immediate Release Contact: Randy Tatel 20 August 2003 615-329-0048

Bredesen to Send Clemency Request to Discredited Pardons & Parole Board
Summers’ Office Undermines System with History of Multiple & Shameless Conflicts of Interest

Nashville - One week ago Governor Bredesen told reporters that in the executive clemency process he did not believe it is a governor's role to second-guess a jury, ''but to look to see if something is missing here.  ''By sending Philip Workman’s clemency request to the publicly discredited Board of Parole and Pardons yet again, it’s taxpayers’ turn to ask “if something is missing here.”

In 2001 Workman was put through a disturbingly partisan and biased hearing before this same Board.  These seven public servants, each making about $60,000 a year, demonstrated an observable partiality in their treatment of witnesses for the state versus the witnesses called by the defense lawyers.

“Those who testified on behalf of the defense were treated with open contempt by Board members who subjected them to relentless and abusive questioning,” said Randy Tatel, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing.  “The state’s witnesses were treated with courtesy and deference by Board members who swallowed their testimony whole without even pretending to chew.”

However in 2001 it was readily apparent that the Board’s recommendation against clemency for Philip Workman had been determined in advance.  Upon voting unanimously against clemency for Workman, Board members read from written statements prepared in advance of the proceedings.

Most egregiously Workman’s 2001 clemency hearing was corrupted by multiple and shameless conflicts of interest.  The Tennessean and the Nashville Scene both reported that while serving as advisor to the governor, Attorney General Paul Summers was simultaneously advising the clemency Board and acting in conjunction with state prosecutors as chief agitator for the execution.

“Attorney General Summers had a very clear ‘conflict of interest’ by claiming to represent the parole Board while actively engaged in a campaign against clemency for Workman," Tatel said.  “In a 1999 letter that Summers wrote to the state Board of Probation and Parole the attorney general said he would serve as a "legal advisor" in capital cases.  At the same time, members of his staff were battling Workman in court.”

“It can’t be a fair or honest hearing when the state’s chief law enforcement officer is playing on both sides of the adversarial system,” Tatel emphasized.“Paul Summers cheated pure and simple ? cheated Tennesseans.”

Spokesperson Sharon Curtis-Flair told the Tennessean, "I don't feel there's anything unusual about what we did."

“Can I infer that cheating and undermining due process is standard operating procedure in the Attorney General’s office,” mused Tatel.

“A clemency hearing is meant to be just that--a hearing, not a pre-scripted kangaroo court” said Tatel.  “Executive clemency exists to correct miscarriages of justice when the courts cannot or will not act.Governor Bredesen takes his responsibilities seriously.  Hopefully he’ll reconsider sending this request to an ethically compromised Board ? a Board that outrageously scheduled a Workman hearing on the 2nd anniversary of 9/11.