North Star Writers Group

Perhaps you’ve heard of Philip Workman – the Tennessee death row inmate who, rather than consuming his own final meal before being lethally injected on May 9th, requested that a vegetarian pizza be sent to a homeless person instead. Perhaps you’ve also heard that his request was denied, and that upon hearing this, a woman and her friends generously donated $1200 dollars worth of pizzas to Nashville’s Rescue Mission to see to it that Workman’s request was honored.

What you might not have heard is the story behind his crime, his 26 years in prison, his previous experience on Death Watch (the term used to describe the 72 hours preceding an inmate’s death) and the doubts of his guilt that linger still.

In 1981, Phillip Workman, cocaine-addicted and desperate for his next hit, robbed a Memphis Wendy’s Restaurant at gunpoint and was apprehended in the midst of his getaway by police responding to the silent alarm that had been pulled by a Wendy’s employee. Workman attempted to flee, but tripped and was cornered. According to Workman himself, he surrendered and moved to hand over his gun to the officers. As he was doing so, he felt a blow to the back of his head from a flashlight and, in the confusion, involuntarily discharged his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol twice. One of the two bullets would fatally injure Lt. Ronald Oliver. For this crime, Workman would be convicted and sentenced to death.

While I’m not suggesting that Workman be considered the next anti-death penalty hero, I do think it is worth considering that in Workman’s case, the only eyewitness to the crime later recanted his statement. The other two officers present testified that they did not see Workman fire his gun. Five of the jurors who sentenced him to death have since signed affidavits denouncing their decision. The victim’s daughter, as well as the former D.A. who prosecuted him, requested that the governor of Tennessee grant him clemency.

Additionally, ballistics evidence suggests that a bullet from Workman’s pistol would be unlikely to pass through a victim’s body in the manner that it had in this case. According to Dr. Cyril Wecht, who testified after studying photographs of Oliver’s post-mortem body, “It is my professional opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the gunshot wound to (Lt.) Ronald D. Oliver is not consistent with the type of ammunition used by Mr. Philip R. Workman. I do not believe that it was Mr. Workman's gun that fired the shot that fatally wounded (Lt.) Oliver." Professional opinion suggests that Oliver instead died as a result of friendly fire, of a bullet from his fellow officer’s gun shot in self defense. However, the rifles belonging to the other two officers present were never studied for evidence to refute or confirm this claim.

No accurate eyewitness accounts, no corroborating ballistics evidence, and five fewer jury members who believe he killed anyone, and yet Phillip Workman is dead by lethal injection. If the United States must continue to endorse and execute capital punishment, it is necessary that these kinds of questions be answered with absolute certainty. Lingering doubts should not be a part of death penalty procedure. One might argue that all cases have loopholes and unanswered questions, but many have indisputable circumstances such as multiple eyewitness accounts, incontrovertible evidence and confessions from the killer’s mouths. This case had none of those.

In 2001, Workman was just 37 minutes from his death and had already said goodbye to his family when the Tennessee Supreme Court intervened and granted him a stay of execution. This time around, Workman did not want to see his family; he just wanted it to be over. He commented to CNN in an interview that he didn’t want to be a visitor to Death Watch again.

What’s more, death by lethal injection, as new evidence suggests, is perhaps more painful than once thought. Medical professionals speculate that the three-drug cocktail causes extreme pain as well as paralysis, which prohibits the individual from voicing this pain. Workman, who not only underwent a significant transformation in his 26 years in prison but also may have been innocent, did not deserve a possibly agonizing death.

Lt. Oliver’s death was just as tragically unnecessary and came as a direct result of Workman’s actions, but Workman’s death does not accurately atone for what happened because no one knows exactly what happened at all. Now two are dead and many questions will go unanswered. At least, because of Workman’s attempt to offer his last meal to a homeless person and because a kind woman and her friends were moved enough to make it happen, an entire shelter full of homeless people will not go hungry for one night.

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