3/23/2000: STILL SMOKEY - NOT BLOODY!

The mountains of Tennessee are still the Smokey
Mountains - not the Bloody Mountains!
Reflections on the execution that wasn't....


It is always nice to go to a killing that ends
up not happening. Such was the case last night in
Tennessee, which had planned to poison to death Robert
Glen Coe in revenge for his alleged murder of Cary
Ann Medlin some 20 years ago. (Yes, in fact there
is a very strong other suspect, but evidence has
"disappeared," and I still don't understand why lawyers
have not pushed this angle further. *I* don't know
that he's innocent - he did confess - but when you are
dealing with the mentally ill and a country where the
police and prosecutors operate with total impunity in
the face of pressure to solve murders quickly, a lot
of things can happen. Did you know that in 1997, 33%
of all known murders went unsolved?) This would have
been Tennessee's first ("legal") prisoner killing since
1960. CUADP was asked to provide advice and support on
a variety of activism and visibility issues as the
Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing faced
it's first actual execution night. Rather than give
a blow by blow accounting, I simply want to share a
few of the moments that made the past 30 hours
memorable. These are in no particular order - I
write on the plane, still in need of sleep....

See news articles at <http://www.tennessean.com/>.
One is reproduced below.

THE STAY STUCK

Shortly after I arrived at Harmon Wray and
Susan McBride's closet-like office of Restorative
Justice Ministries on Wednesday morning, we learned
that there was a "brief stay" issued by the judge
who had been ordered by the sixth district court of
appeals to review various materials. She said that
16 hours simply was not enough time to give proper
attention to 5 inches of paper and four video tapes.
BUT, we had no reason to believe that this stay would
hold, and decided to continue planned activities: An
interfaith worship service followed by a demonstration
at the Riverbend Prison - where the killing room is.
Through the day, however, we received various signs
that there would be no killing that night. In the
afternoon we learned that the judge had issued a
memo establishing a time line for when she would look
at the various specific materials - the time line
lasts through Monday. But we also received word that
the State was petitioning to a higher court to have
the stay vacated. "They's just itchin' to kill!"

For me, the stay became real when Margaret Vandiver
arrived. We were hanging out at Ann's home, where
hospitality and support was being provided to the
Coe family. Margaret is part of the Memphis chapter
of TCASK, and many of their members had been fasting
since Sunday evening. When she arrived at Ann's house,
she was eating what she describes as "the best tasting
peanut butter sandwich - EVER!" Now, if you have read
the book *Among the Lowest of the Dead*, by David von
Drehle (highly recommended and available through
Amazon.com by clicking on the book list at
http://www.cuadp.org>), then you know that Margaret
has been in this struggle for more then 20 years. I
figured that if she chose to break her fast, there MUST
have been a high degree of confidence in this stay!

(BTW, Margaret reports that the Fast by the
folks in Memphis was much more then a personal witness.
Some unexpected results were that the group became tighter,
the effort received very positive media attention, and new
members were attracted to TCASK. I hope Margaret and
others will elaborate on that.)

(BTW #2 - we learned late in the morning that
many of the men on death row had joined the fast and were
refusing their food for the day.)

I learned of another indicator of confidence in
the stay when Margaret later relayed a story told by
Mrs. Ingle - spouse of the Rev. Joe Ingle (another
long-time abolitionist). Upon arriving home from work
she checked the answering machine. Apparently there
was a very vulgar message - some poor soul bent on
vengeance was cussing them out. "OH, we must have
a stay!" was Mrs. Ingles' response! hahahaha.

(By the way, CUADP has amassed a number of tapes
of this sort of message - people cussing us out
for our opposition to the death penalty. I hear
that TCASK also has such a collection. It has been
suggested that such tapes would make for an excellent
sociological study, so if you know of anyone else
with angry pro-dp recordings, please have them get
in touch with me at <abe@cuadp.org>.)

Anyway, we learned after the worship service,
when we arrived at the prison, that SCOTUS (Supreme
Court of the U.S.) had actually done its job by
unanimously upholding the stay. That allowed us to
truly make the rally a celebration.

****

There is so much else I could say, but the plane
will land soon and I have 50 messages to read. BUT,
a few thanks are in order:

Thanks to Nashville Metro Police, for waiting
two hours before driving into the rally site to order
us to leave. Hahahahaha! Talk about your keystone
cops. Maybe they had to figure out what law we were
breaking (not likely - cops get away with murder, so
why worry about shoeing away a few "radicals!"), or
perhaps they didn't get a call until, towards the end
of the demo, we turned the speakers toward the prison,
cranked up the volume, and tried to be loud enough to be
heard by the prisoners for a few minutes. Who knows?
But, I did make it a point to thank them for waiting
until we were finished before they came to run us out....

Thanks to Sara Sharpe and Susan McBride for bringing
me to Tennessee to MC the rally and to help keep things
running smoothly through the day.

Thanks to Rev. John H. Collett, Jr, Senior Minister
at Belmont United Methodist Church <http://www.belmontumc.org>.
He took a lead role in pulling together the interfaith service,
and the folks at Belmont really came through. When I
mentioned before the service that it would be nice if we
could pass the plate to help the Coe family and those who
have been supporting them this past week, the church members
present decided that they would write a check instead!
BUT, I will make a pitch here too. Two members of Coe's
family have lost their jobs because they chose to spend
time visiting their loved one instead of working. If you
can help them out, please send me a note, and by the time
I get it I'll find out how best to direct any offerings.
I'm at <abe@cuadp.org>. Again, Thanks Rev. Collett. It
was a wonderful service!

*****

Finally, one of the best moments for me was as I
was leaving. I was stopped by the guard running the metal
detector in the airport. "You're not from Nashville, are
you?" he asked. "That's correct," I replied. "Well,"
he said, "I see your t-shirt. My church supports that,
and so do I." Whereupon I presented him with a button
reading, "The Death Penalty Is A Hate Crime," for himself,
and a CUADP donation envelope for his church!

(If you want an AbolitionWear Catalog, send your
postal address to <abolitionwear@cuadp.org>.)

Now I'm on my way back to Cleveland to continue
supporting my friend Sam Reese Sheppard. A blurb on
that is below.

Thanks again to all the abolitionists in Tennessee.
Lawyers, activists, journalists, and many many regular folks
from all walks of life - y'all done good!

paz!

--abe

************************************************************
************************************************************
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP)
PMB 335, 2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy,
Gainesville, FL 32609
800-973-6548 <http://www.cuadp.org> <abe@cuadp.org>
************************************************************
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S H E P P A R D C I V I L T R I A L
Sam Reese Sheppard has sued the State of Ohio for a
declaration of wrongful imprisonment in the case of his
father, Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard. The trial is ongoing and
is expected to conclude by mid-April. This trial is being
broadcast live on <http://www.courttv.com>. This trial is
not only about the Sheppard case: In light of other
recent cases of police & prosecutorial misconduct, and in
light of the growing number of wrongful convictions coming
to public attention, this is just one of many instances
where questions of government accountability and
responsibility have found the national spotlight. Please
see the listing of POTENTIAL CASES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
posted on our website. To add other cases, and for more
information, and to learn how to support the Sheppard
team, please visit <http://www.samreesesheppard.org>.



****************************************************
Execution foes' vigil is solemn, celebratory

PHOTO CAPTION: A crowd listens to singer Steve Earle at an
anti-death penalty vigil outside Riverbend prison where
Robert Glen Coe is being held. (Bill Steber / Staff)

By Beth Warren / Staff Writer

Death-penalty opponents began with solemn reflection at a church
service last night but later shouted and sang their opposition
during a protest down the road from Riverbend Maximum Security
Institution.

"What do we want?" shouted Abraham Bonowitz, a representative
of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

"No death penalty!" the crowd roared.

"When do we want it?" Bonowitz continued.

"Now!"

The crowd of about 50 gathered here on what was to have been
the eve of the execution of Robert Glen Coe, who was convicted
of raping, strangling and stabbing 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin
in 1979. His execution, originally set for 1 a.m. today, has
been delayed by a federal judge who will review claims that
he is not mentally competent to be put to death.

Country-rocker Steve Earle, who wrote the song Ellis Unit
One for the movie Dead Man Walking, sang to the crowd in what
he said became more of a celebration than he had expected.

"I witnessed an execution and helped plan two funerals for
people who were not dead yet," said Earle, who began his
activism against the death penalty while living in Texas.
"I've always believed it was wrong, was raised to believe
it was wrong."

He said, "This thing tends to have an ugly momentum once
it gets going -- look at Texas and Virginia."

Said Tim Wise, executive director for the Tennessee Coalition to
Abolish State Killing, "We may be back out here the early part
of next week ... although we might be out here to celebrate an
indefinite stay."

He added, "This machinery of death is in place, but that
doesn't necessarily mean it will take the life of Philip
Workman or Robert Coe. In the end we're going to stop the
death penalty in Tennessee."

Workman, convicted of killing a Memphis police officer, is
scheduled for execution April 6.

Earlier last evening, an interfaith prayer vigil drew about
250 people as part of a call "affirming the sacredness of all
life."

Those gathered at Belmont United Methodist Church prayed for
Coe and for Cary Ann, lighting candles for both.

Among the speakers was former New Hampshire state legislator
Renny Cushing, who told the crowd about his father, who was
fatally gunned down while answering a knock at his door in New
Hampshire in 1988. Cushing is the executive director of Murder
Victim's Families for Reconciliation.

Cushing said he knows first-hand the pain a murder causes, but
said that healing "is a process, not an event."

He added that Tennessee should not drag Coe and Workman "from
their cages" and execute them, which would make "us all killers."

"Because we need to heal as individuals and as a community, I
oppose the death penalty. It's a replication of the violence
that took our loved ones from us in the first place," Cushing said.

One person remained outside, standing on church steps wearing an
apron of sack cloth that read "I'm pro-life 4 unborn 4 living."

Inside the church, organizers were selling T-shirts and
sweatshirts characterizing the death penalty as "racist,
not a deterrent, targets the poor, costs more than a life
sentence, kills innocent people ..."

"Violence is not the way to respond to violence," vigil
organizer Susan McBride said before the service.

Tennessee is the only Southern state that has not carried
out an execution in the "modern age," since the U.S. Supreme
Court reinstated the death penalty as a possible form of
punishment in 1976.

"I think once the first execution has been done in a place
it just starts getting easier and easier for others to happen,"
McBride said. "People just get desensitized.

"I don't want us to become Texas."

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