Death Penalty Moratorium Ends Next Week

The latest TCASK Action Alert reminded me of this fact:

On May 2nd, the Governor’s 90-day moratorium to study the lethal injection protocol is scheduled to end. On May 9th, Phillip Workman is scheduled to be executed. But Tennessee’s death penalty is still fraught with deadly error: racial and geographic disparities in death sentencing persist, people with serious mental illness are disproportionately sentenced to death, and we run the terrifying risk of executing an
innocent person. Resuming executions under such a broken system would be unconscionable.

What has the Governor learned during this moratorium and what effect, if any, will it have on executions and capital cases in Tennessee? What studies have been done and what conversations have been had to assess the fairness and efficacy of capital punishment in Tennessee? Governor Bredesen needs to tell us how he's been using this moratorium and where we go from here. One week after the moratorium ends, Phillip Workman (pictured) is scheduled to die. Questions still remain about whether Workman was given a fair trial.