Death Penalty in Tennessee
History
Capital punishment has existed in Tennessee off and on
throughout its history, although the methods have changed. Prior
to 1913, the method of execution was hanging and there are few records
of those executed by this method. Electrocution became the method
of execution in 1916 after a two-year hiatus from the death penalty from
1913-1915. Then there was a period in the state when death row was
empty. From 1972 until 1978, there were no inmates sentenced to
death in Tennessee because of the U.S. Supreme Court declaring it
unconstitutional. When the death penalty became legal in the state
again in 1978, those inmates sitting on death row from1960 to 1978 had
their sentenced commuted mostly to life.
In 1998, the state legislature added lethal injection
giving those inmates committing their crimes before January 1, 1999 the
choice of electrocution or lethal injection. Legislation enacted
in March 2000 specifies lethal injection as the primary method of
execution. Inmates who committed their offense and were sentenced
to death prior to January 1, 1999 may request electrocution.
When capital punishment was reinstated in 1916, records
were kept of those sentenced to death by the warden in an "official
ledger" that accounted the name, crime, and the time of death of
the 125 executed in Tennessee. From 1916 to 1960, all executions
took place at the Tennessee State Penitentiary located in
Nashville. Tennessee's first execution in nearly 40 years took
place April 19, 2000 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution where
Robert Glen Coe was executed by lethal injection.
On February 1, 2007 Governor Bredesen issued an executive order directing the TDOC to review the manner in which the death penalty is administered. All executions were put on hold. On April 30, the department delivered revised death penalty protocols to Governor Bredesen. The moratorium was lifted on May 2, 2007.
On September 12, 2007 Daryl Keith Holton became the first person to be executed by electrocution since 1960.
Life on Death Row
Today, inmates sentenced to death are primarily housed
in a separate unit at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution except for
a few inmates who may be housed at the Brushy Mountain Correctional
Complex located about 45 miles northwest of Knoxville. The two
female inmates sentenced to death are housed at the Tennessee Prison for
Women located in Nashville.
The housing and supervision of "death row"
inmates are strictly guided by policies and procedures developed by the
department. For example, the department has developed a management
tool of behavioral levels to supervise these inmates on a daily
basis. They are all maximum-security inmates, but they are
classified into behavioral levels of A, B, and C. When an inmate
sentenced to death first enters the prison system, he or she is a level
C, the lowest level. After 16 months, the inmate is reclassified,
based on behavior, with the possibility or reaching the next level of
B. Then level A can be attained by the inmate. Reaching
level A or B means more privileges for the inmate, such as more phone
and visitation privileges. Only those inmates with the level A can
apply for the few jobs available of death row-- cleaning, food
preparation and data entry. An inmate can go to a lower level for
misconduct.
The inmates at Unit 2 at Riverbend are awakened around
5:30 a.m. Three meals per day are served to them in their
cells. Breakfast is at 7 a.m., lunch at 11, and dinner at 5 p.m.
Lights are out by 9 p.m. daily.
For the very few death row inmates housed at Brushy
Mountain Correctional Complex, life consists of being locked in their
cells 23-hours a day except for an hour of the day for exercise. They
have been placed there for a specific reason, such as behavioral
problems or security.
Female death row inmates are subject to similar
policies as their male counterparts; however they are not housed in a separate
housing unit because of the small number of females sentenced to death
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