Tag: death penalty

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Lawmakers Pass Bills Allowing Death Penalty for Child Rapists

Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash

GOP lawmakers still want to kill child rapists in Tennessee and while laws to do it have passed both chambers, death penalty opponents question motives behind the legislation. 

If the governor signs the bill, adults over the age of 18 could face the death penalty if they rape a child under the age of 12. However, judges could also levy lesser punishments to those convicted.

The legislation was sponsored by two powerful lawmakers: House Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth (R-Cottontown) and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin). 

The House version of the bill passed Tuesday. The Senate version passed earlier this month. 

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court said a similar idea from Louisiana was “not proportional punishment for the crime of child rape.” In a Tennesseean op-ed published Monday, Johnson said he sponsored the legislation “in an effort to challenge the 2008 Supreme Court ruling.” That part rang a sour note for Tennesseeans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP) which said the statement shows “what this bill is really about.”

“Bottom line: This bill is about overturning Supreme Court precedent and not about protecting our children,” reads an email newsletter sent from the group Tuesday. “If protecting kids was the priority, then lawmakers would listen to the child service providers who continue to publicly share their concerns that this legislation will only chill the reporting of this crime since 90 percent of offenders are family or friends of the child. It will also trap children in decades of capital litigation that will only serve to re-traumatize them, particularly if they have to testify over and over again.” 

Such legislation is on brand for the GOP’s tough-on-crime platform. Conservative lawmakers believe the threat of death is equal to the some crimes and their laws may make some re-consider their actions. But the bill could also open a big door for lawmakers down the road.

Current law says a “defendant guilty of first degree murder” must get a sentencing hearing in which they’ll get the death penalty, a life sentence, or a life sentence without the possibility of parole. This GOP bill removes “first degree murder” wherever it appears in current law and replaces it with “an offense punishable by death.” This would add child rape this year. But it seems to crack the door open for lawmakers to add other offenses in the future. 

For now, though, Johnson and Lamberth are focused on child rapists, who Johnson called “monsters” in his op-ed. 

“Child rape is the most disgraceful, indefensible act one can commit, leaving lasting emotional and psychological wounds on its victims,” he wrote. “As a legislator, and more importantly, as a human being, our responsibility to protect the most vulnerable comes first.”

However, the notion of upending the Supreme Court ruling was on Lamberth’s mind even as he presented the House version of the bill earlier this year. He vowed then to fight for its implementation in court. He noted that in 2008, the court’s ruling came because “not enough states had this type of penalty on the books.”     

“We’re seen other decisions by the Supreme Court overturned,” Lamberth said. “I believe this particular makeup of the court, it leans more towards state’s rights.”

Death penalty executions remain on hold in Tennessee after a scathing report in December 2022 found numerous problems with the state’s execution protocols. 

Two death penalty bills failed in the legislature last year. One would have added firing squads to the state’s options for executions. Another would have brought more transparency to the execution process. 

One death penalty bill passed last year. It gave the Attorney General control over post-conviction proceedings in capital cases, rather than the local District Attorneys. That bill was ruled unconstitutional in July by Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan. 

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TN House Leader Seeks Death Penalty for Child Rapists

State Capitol (Credit: Tennessee State Government)

“If you rape a child in the state of Tennessee, you will die. Period.” 

This is the hope of state House Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth (R-Cottontown). If his legislation passes, adults over the age of 18 could face the death penalty if they rape a child under the age of 12, he told the House Criminal Justice Committee last week. He described his legislation before the Tennessee General Assembly as “the gravest type of bill we would possibly consider.” 

“If [the legislation] saves even one child from going through that, because the fear of [the death penalty] gets into the head of some monster out there — that’s even thinking about this — then it’s worth saving that child,” Lamberth said. “I will tell you life in prison for these evil people is simply too good. They should not be able to live out their days with the rest of us, including their victim — paying for their food, and housing, and care, and medical as they age and everything else. If you rape a child, you should die.”

The bill moved quickly through the House committee system. It is now placed behind the budget for consideration by the full House. The Senate bill was only introduced in mid-January and awaits a review by the Senate Judiciary Committee, its first hearing by lawmakers in that house. Its sponsor there is Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), Senate Majority Leader.  

So far, the only votes cast against the bill are from Democratic House members Rep. Ronnie Glynn (D-Clarksville), Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), Rep. Joe Towns Jr. (D-Memphis), and Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville). 

Johnson said the penalty of child rape in Tennessee is life in prison, a sentence that must be served fully. She argued this already holds the guilty accountable. She worried a death penalty sentence would have a “chilling effect” on victims reporting the crime. 

“If a child was raped by an uncle, say,” Johnson said. “The uncle’s going to say, ‘Don’t tell because I’ll be killed, I’ll get the death penalty.’ Then, the mother of the child, who is the sister of the [alleged perpetrator], maybe won’t want to testify against her brother, if it means the death penalty. 

“If the victims fear, it will create a chilling effect on reporting.”

 Johnson also argued the move could further “re-victimize the victim.” 

“Not only is [the child in the scenario] a victim, she will be victimized every day by the state that’s going to require her to carry that pregnancy [to term]. Then, they’re going to require her to show up for appeal after appeal.”

“It’s a heinous crime and I hate to think about it, but life in prison also takes care of the situation.”

Lamberth read an email from a young, female victim, asking committee members to support the legislation. It spoke the high hurdles for criminal charges and soft sentences for defendants accused of child rape. It described their sexual desires like “they were at an all-you-could-eat buffet with the appetite of a bear coming out of hibernation and only having access to a single plate.”

“The ones that actually get convicted should face real consequences,” the letter read. “Perhaps if that happened, there would be less people in our community forever changed.”

If the legislation passes, Lamberth vowed to fight for its implementation in court. A 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said the death penalty is not proportional punishment for the crime of child rape. Lamberth countered this, however, noting that the court’s ruling came because “not enough states had this type of penalty on the books.”     

“We’re seen other decisions by the Supreme Court overturned,” Lamberth said. “I believe this particular makeup of the court, it leans more towards state’s rights.”

Death penalty executions remain on hold in Tennessee, after a scathing report in December 2022 found numerous problems with the state’s execution protocols. 

Two death penalty bills failed in the legislature last year. One would have added firing squads to the state’s options for executions. Another would have brought more transparency to the execution process. 

One death penalty bill passed last year. It gave the Attorney General control over post-conviction proceedings in capital cases, rather than the local District Attorneys. That bill was ruled unconstitutional in July by Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan. 

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Fight On New Death Penalty Law Expected to Continue Next Month

Credit: Jackson Baker

A Republican state senator from Memphis contends post-conviction challenges in capital murder cases should be handled by the state attorney general, not local district attorneys, despite a court ruling against the bill he passed.

“Because the attorney general handles all other aspects of the appeals process in capital cases, it is more efficient for collateral challenges to stay within the attorney general’s office, which already has extensive experience with the case,” state Sen. Brent Taylor said.

The first-term Memphis Republican sponsored the bill this year to put those responsibilities under the state attorney general, sparking a lawsuit by Memphis defense attorney Robert Hutton and Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. They argued the law is unconstitutional because it removes the local district attorney from the equation and puts the state attorney general in charge of collateral challenges, which involve judicial re-examination of judgments or claims outside the direct review process. (Photo: Brent Taylor for Senate)

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan ruled recently that the new law removing local district attorneys from death penalty post-conviction matters is unconstitutional. She also determined that the General Assembly failed to give proper public notice about the law but did not rule on a question of voting rights in the case.

The attorney general’s office is set to file a challenge by early August with the Tennessee Court of Appeals. The Tennessee Supreme Court could hear the case at some point.

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and look forward to seeking clarity at the appellate level. Ensuring the adversarial system remains fully engaged over the life of a capital case is our obligation to the victims’ families because no family should be deprived of justice,” AG’s office spokesperson Elizabeth Lane Johnson said.

Hutton, who is representing Larry McKay in a death penalty case dating to 1982 reportedly filed a petition in March claiming new evidence could change the conviction. McKay and Michael Eugene Sample were convicted of two counts of felony murder for the shooting deaths of two Shelby County store clerks in a 1981 robbery.

Initially written to deal with a yearlong backlog of rape kits, Taylor’s legislation was amended to hand collateral review cases to the state attorney general, which Mulroy and Hutton claim removes the authority of locally-elected district attorneys and gives it to the state’s top attorney.

State Sen. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, who leads the Senate Democratic Caucus, spoke against the measure on the Senate floor this year and continues to raise questions. She points out that Democrats told Republicans they were pushing an unconstitutional measure stripping people of their “right to local control” over death penalty cases.

“Now a state court is telling them the same,” Akbari said in a statement. “By eliminating the power of locally elected prosecutors to manage these cases, this law undermines the very essence of democracy and denies communities of their voice in matters of life and justice.”

Taylor, however, pointed out that “collateral challenges” usually take place well into the appeals process and said it is “cumbersome and disjointed” for a district attorney unfamiliar with a decades-old case to handle it.

“Additionally, by keeping the entire appeals process within the attorney general’s office, the law aims to improve transparency for victims’ families who have existing relationships” with lawyers in the attorney general’s office, Taylor said.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a former assistant district attorney in Sumner County, sponsored the bill originally, and Taylor signed as Senate sponsor. Lamberth could not be reached for comment.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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Death Penalty Update: No Firing Squad; Injection Transparency Stalled; State AG Could Manage Appeals

State Capitol (Credit: Tennessee State Government)

Tennessee won’t be killing death row inmates with a firing squad anytime soon, nor will it get more transparency in its lethal injection process, but Republican lawmakers did see fit this year to take away some powers from local attorneys general in death penalty cases. 

Two major bills before the GOP-controlled Tennessee General Assembly focused on the state’s death penalty situation this year, hoping to get state executions back on track. But both of them stalled before the end of session.  

As the Memphis Flyer noted in a previous story, executions in Tennessee are now halted, hamstrung on scientific protocols for lethal injections. A report ordered by Governor Bill Lee last year found that Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) officials did not follow their own rules to safely carry out lethal injection executions. Lee paused all executions after the report was published to review and repair the process.   

In the meantime, Rep. Dennis Powers (R-Jacksboro) filed a bill that gives death row inmates a new option for execution. A firing squad “just simply gives them that option,” he said in a committee hearing. 

Death by firing squad has had a trendy resurgence, especially with conservative lawmakers. Such legislators in five states — Idaho, Utah, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — have approved the method. Utah is the only state to actually use the method recently, though, in 2010. This resurgence is likely due to states’ troubles in acquiring lethal injection drugs as their makers have become more reluctant to associate with the practice.

Tennessee’s troubled lethal injection program was one reason Powers said he brought the bill. In committee meetings, he’d remind legislators that capital punishment is legal in Tennessee, is constitutional, and so was his bill. Asked about the pain associated with the shooting method, Powers said he cared little. 

“Any type of death … it’s going to be painful,” he said in one hearing. “The death that they promoted and carried out for another subject was painful, too. So, I don’t have a whole lot of empathy for people that suffer pain during an execution.”

The bill made it to late rounds of the committee system but was ultimately queued up to be heard after the state budget. Lawmakers eager to end the embattled last weeks of this turbulent session left the firing-squad proposal on the table.

However, the bill yielded one concrete action. House leaders stripped Rep. Paul Sherrell (R-Sparta) from his spot on the House Criminal Justice Committee. The move came after Sherrell proposed adding “hanging by a tree” to the firing-squad bill in a committee hearing. The idea was not taken seriously and Sherrell issued a rare GOP apology about his remarks the following day.  

Another GOP bill did not advance as far as the firing-squad idea. Rep. Justin Lafferty (R-Knoxville) wanted more transparency in the state’s existing lethal injection system. Specifically, he wanted Tennesseans to know what companies made and supplied the state’s lethal chemicals. Lafferty said he believed more transparency would help ease woes that now trouble the state’s lethal injection process and help get executions back on track. 

”If Tennessee wants to continue this as a method of execution, the secrecy around the process should probably come to an end,” he said during a committee review. 

However, other GOP lawmakers worried such transparency could scare off some drug companies supplying lethal injection drugs that are already hard to get. The bill was tabled in early March. The group Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (TADP) said TDOC “lobbied hard against it.” 

A final GOP bill around the death penalty was approved by lawmakers this year. It gives the Tennessee Attorney General control over post-conviction proceedings in capital cases. That means appeals from convicted murderers for new trials or sentences will now be decided by the state’s AG, not local District Attorneys General, like Shelby County’s Steve Mulroy.

“This sudden move appears to be a response to the choices of voters in both Davidson County and Shelby County, who elected prosecutors to support more restorative and less punitive policies,” reads a statement from TADP. 

This bill was sent to Lee for a signature last week. According to the state’s legislative record, he still had not signed the bill as of Tuesday.   

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Two From Shelby County Proposed for Execution

CREDIT: Murderpedia, Tennessee Department of Corrections

Murderpedia, Tennessee Department of Corrections

From left to right from top left: Oscar Franklin Smith, Harold Wayne Nichols, Pervis Tyrone Payne, Gary Wayne Sutton, Donald Middlebrooks, Byron Black, Farris Genner Morris, Pervis Tyrone Payne, Henry Eugene Hodges

Two of the nine men who could soon be executed by the state were convicted in Shelby County.

Late Tuesday, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery quietly requested execution dates for the nine men from the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Executions began again in Tennessee last year. The last before 2018 was in 2009. The state has executed five men since August 9th, 2018. The latest, Stephen West, was executed by lethal injection on August 15th, 2019.

The Tennessee Supreme Court will now decide whether or not to set execution dates for the nine men Slatery proposed for execution this week. All of them are now on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Of them, two were convicted of murder in Shelby County, one occurring in Memphis and the other in Millington. Another man was convicted of murder in nearby Madison County. All of these comprise the total of West Tennessee prisoners now considered for execution.

Caruthers

Tony Von Caruthers was convicted in Memphis for a 1994 triple homicide of Marcellos Anderson, Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker.  WREG reported that the murders began as a drug deal with Marcellos Anderson. Delois Anderson was his mother and Tucker was a teenage friend. The station said that the mother and friend were beaten, tortured, and buried under a grave dug for someone else.

Caruthers and another man were tried and convicted in the same trial. The other man was set free in 2016 after winning an appeal in the case. In February, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied a final appeal for Caruthers in the case.

 

Payne

Pervis Tyrone Payne was convicted in 1988 of the 1987 stabbing murder of Charisse Christopher and her two-year-old daughter, Lacie Jo, in Millington.

Payne’s execution was set for 2007 but was put on hold when Gov. Phil Bredesen put a moratorium on executions to review Tennessee’ lethal injection protocols.

In 2016, Payne was denied a hearing to determine whether or not he was eligible for execution because he is intellectually disabled.

Morris

Hodges

Farris Genner Morris was convicted of shooting and stabbing a man and his niece to death in Madison County in 1994.

Henry Eugene Hodges was convicted of the 1990 robbery and murder of a man in Smyrna. Hodges, 24 at the time, and his girlfriend, 15 at the time, robbed and ransacked a man’s house, stole his bank PIN, and

Middlebrooks

 murdered him.

Donald Middlebrooks murdered a 14-year-old with a knife in 1987. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989. 

Nichols

Serial rapist Harold Wayne Nichols (aka “Red Headed Stranger”) was convicted of the

Smith

 1988 murder of a woman in Chattanooga by hitting her on the head with a board.

Oscar Franklin Smith stabbed to death his estranged wife and 

Sutton

her two teenaged sons in Davidson county in 1988.

Gary Wayne Sutton murdered a man and his sister

Black

 in Blount County in 1992.

In Davidson County, Byron Lewis Black murdered his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6, in 1988. 
 

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Conservative Group Pushes for Death Penalty Alternatives

CREDIT: Death Penalty Information Center

Death Penalty Information Center

Stephen Michael West

A group of conservatives in Tennessee are speaking out against the death penalty. State officials began executions again in Tennessee last year and another execution is scheduled for Thursday night, August 15th.

Nashville resident Amy Lawrence, state coordinator of Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said in a news release, that the death penalty goes against the “basic tenets” of the group’s beliefs, that ”murders should be followed with swift and sure justice,” and that a change in thinking is taking place now on the death penalty in red-state legislatures.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced yesterday that he will not intervene in Thursday’s scheduled execution of Tennessee death-row inmate Stephen Michael West. According to The Tennessean, West was moved into a cell next to the execution chamber in Nashville yesterday and will order his last meal sometime today.

“After thorough consideration of Stephen West’s request for clemency and a review of the case, the state of Tennessee’s sentence will stand, and I will not be intervening,” Lee said in a statement Tuesday.

West was convicted for the 1986 murders of a woman and her 15-year-old child in Union County, according to The Tennessean. West was also convicted of raping the young girl and inflicting 17 “torture-type cuts” to her stomach, according to the paper.

West argued he was present during the murders but he didn’t do it. Instead, he said it was the work of a friend of his from work.

West’s will be the state’s fifth execution since state officials began scheduling them again last year. Before that, the state’s last execution was in 2010, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. There are now 56 prisoners on death row in Tennessee.

Next month, New Orleans will host the first annual national meeting of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. Lawrence and others from Tennessee will attend. She spoke with us regarding her group and its aims. — Toby Sells

Death Penalty Information Center


Memphis Flyer: How does the death penalty violate the basic tenets of your group’s beliefs?

Amy Lawrence: I believe that the core tenet of conservatism is small, limited government, and as conservatives, we apply this concept to a variety of issues, whether that be taxation, healthcare, or regulations. This is the same tenet that should be applied to capital punishment.

Simply put, the death penalty is anything but small, limited government. It is a prime example of a bloated, broken government program. It is costly, it risks executing an innocent person, and it leaves the ultimate power over life and death in the hands of a fallible system.
[pullquote-1] MF: You also said that, “murders should be followed with swift and sure justice.” What does that justice look like to you?

AL: Well, it sure doesn’t look like years of appeals and decades of court proceedings for the victims’ family members.

The death penalty does not provide swift and sure justice but instead drags families through decades of litigation, where in at least half the cases in Tennessee, the sentence is overturned and the convicted receives a life sentence anyway.

Life without parole begins as soon as the trial is over and allows families to at least have some legal finality.

MF: What alternatives to the death penalty does your group hope lawmakers will consider?
[pullquote-2] AL: Tennessee already has a life sentence of 51 years before parole eligibility and life without parole, which does not allow for parole ever. These are the two sentences that the majority of murderers already receive.

Death sentences are on the decline statewide and have been for some years with roughly only two death sentences in Tennessee between 2013-2018. More and more prosecutors seek the alternative sentences because of the cost of seeking the death penalty and to spare victims’ families while juries are also less likely to impose death sentences.

Death Penalty Information Center


MF: Is an alternative to the death penalty a hard sell in the broader conservative community?

AL: I really focus on what unites conservatives on this issue — limited government, fiscal responsibility, and pro-life stances.

We know that government and human decisions are error-prone. We simply cannot guarantee that we can carry out capital punishment with 100 percent accuracy. While the punishment might be just in some circumstances, we cannot carry it out justly.

We also have limited resources and with death sentences costing $1 to $2 million more than life without parole. I think the majority of people would support having those resources go towards victims’ compensation, law enforcement, and mental health programs.

MF: What is the next step for your group in this push?

AL: We continue to educate the public about the shortcomings of our system and will continue to push for laws to make the system more just.

MF: Is there anything else you’d like to say or anything I left out?

AL: Absolutely! If you would like to learn more about our organization, check out our website www.tnconservativesconcerned.org. I’m also happy to talk to civic groups and faith communities about this work.

For more information about Tennessee and the death penalty, visit the Death Penalty Information Center.