NUOVAMENTE SOSPESA L'ESECUZIONE DI WORKMAN!

31.03.2001 - Ieri la Corte Suprema del Tennessee ha nuovamente sospeso l'esecuzione di Philip Workman: l'ordine è stato dato solo 43 minuti prima che Workman venisse assassinato dal boia.
Se volete contribuire a salvare Philip Workman seguiteci su questa pagina: potrebbe essere necessario un ulteriore vostro intervento con le modalità che ci verranno suggerite dalla "Coalizione Italiana contro la pena di morte". L'esecuzione potrebbe essere nuovamente rifissata e noi vogliamo assolvere fino all'ultimo il nostro dovere morale di fare quanto possibile per strappare definitivamente alla morte Philip Workman.

Ecco la cronaca di "The Tennessean":

43 minutes before Phil Workman was scheduled to die, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a stay of execution, sending his case back to a Memphis court for a hearing on "newly discovered evidence."
Prison officials were preparing for the execution.
Workman's brother and 7 media witnesses were being searched on their way to view the execution.
Then a guard announced "a change of plans."
Warden Ricky Bell entered the witness room and said, "there has been a stay issued by the Tennessee Supreme Court. We're just kind of in limbo." Fifteen minutes later, the warden returned and told the witnesses, "the execution is off for tonight. It will not happen this date.
Outside the prison, whispers of the rumored stay ran through the crowd of assembled anti-death-penalty protesters. When the word was confused, a big cheer erupted.
A few minutes later, Terry Workman, Philip's brother, walked out to meet the assembled reporters gathered in a parking lot about a 100 yards from the death chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
"I just want you all to know that it's been our prayer for a long time that somebody would listen to the evidence that we have brought forth in the past year."
Workman had been slated to die at 1 a.m. this morning by lethal injection for the 1981 shooting death of a Memphis police officer during the robbery of a Wendy's fast-food restaurant.
One of Workman's defense attorneys described the relief when they got word of the stay.
"We were stunned. It was disbelief," said Jefferson Dorsey.
He cited what he called "the judges' innate sense of fairness."
"Up until now, the entire legal argument has been about whether we deserve a hearing. This will be the 1st time that a witness has ever been sworn," Dorsey said.
The lawyer added, "There are some witnesses we're just itching to put on a witness stand." He declined to name them, however.
Dorsey stopped short of accusing Memphis police and Shelby County prosecutors of a "conspiracy" to frame Workman, as the prisoners' spiritual advisor the Rev. Joe Ingle has done.
Speaking of the lateness of the stay, Dorsey said, "I pray that we never get in this situation again."
State Correction Department spokesman Steve Hayes said that Workman was being moved back to his regular cell on death row, around the time of his scheduled execution.
"The doubt is so overwhelming in this case that if he was on trial today, there is no way on the face of this earth that he would be convicted of capital murder," Terry Workman said outside the prison.
"My definition of justice in this case will be for Philip to have the evidentiary hearing that his lawyers have been seeking for 10 years," Terry Workman said. Workman's lawyers have argued that Lt. Ronald Oliver was killed by a bullet fired by another Memphis police officer at the scene of the robbery.
Word of the stay "was like a 100-pound weight coming off of my heart," Terry Workman said.

Per ulteriori informazioni sul caso potete visitare il sito della "Coalizione Italiana contro la pena di morte"