After being convicted of felony murder in 1982 and spending 18 years on death row, Workman, now 46, is scheduled to die on April 6 in only the second execution in Tennessee since 1960. (Another inmate, Robert Glen Coe, is to receive a lethal injection the day before Workman.) As might be expected, Workman’s attorneys have sought to reopen the case. More unusually, the policeman’s family has joined the effort: Oliver’s daughter made a plea to set aside the death sentence last week. “I just think they should know for sure the whole story before they execute this man,” said Paula Oliver Dodillet.
The surprise plea is the latest chapter in a national debate over capital convictions, sparked in part by Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s January decision to declare a moratorium on executions in his state. Last Thursday, Congressmen Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts and Ray LaHood of Illinois introduced the Innocence Protection Act. The bill, similar to one put forward in the Senate last month, is designed to ensure that death-row defendants are competently represented and have access to DNA evidence. “We must be 100 percent sure that every legal and technological method is provided to determine guilt in capital cases,” says LaHood, who supports capital punishment.
In Workman’s case, defense attorneys contend that an originally undisclosed autopsy X-ray of the police officer proves that Workman’s hollow-point, .45 -caliber bullet could not have killed Oliver. They allege that the cop instead was killed by friendly fire. They also point out that the only eyewitness who testified at Workman’s 1982 trial has since recanted. “I don’t know how much clearer evidence of innocence you have to have,” says Jefferson Dorsey, Workman’s attorney. In light of those claims, five of the 12 jurors who sentenced Workman to death have said they would not have voted to convict on the first-degree-murder charge.
The courts remain unconvinced. On Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected the defense arguments. “I knew I shouldn’t have had faith that these people would finally do the right thing,” Workman told his attorney. Gov. Don Sundquist, a death-penalty proponent, scheduled a hearing for Monday. But Workman’s attorneys aren’t banking on that. “We want this evidence heard in open court,” Dorsey says. Time is running out.
