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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
Workman, Rahman cases show death penalty's
injustice
Memphis, Tenn.—The two people
closest to execution in Tennessee are Philip Workman and Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman.
Since Philip Workman received a stay—42 minutes before his scheduled
execution—the Tennessee Supreme Court granted a stay of his new execution date
and ordered a full evidentiary hearing on new evidence that indicated that
Philip was not the triggerman in the case. That hearing began last summer
in front of Memphis Judge Colton, who had denied Philip's appeal for a stay of
execution. All the community observers at the appeal hearing were struck by the
theatrics of the prosecution and by the ways in which the judge favored the
prosecution. We were not surprised when the judge denied Workman relief on all
points that he had raised. The state immediately moved for a new execution date
to be set. The Tennessee Supreme Court, however, refused to vacate the stay of
execution and also refused the state's motion to expedite the appeal. Thus,
Workman will receive a full appeal before the Tennessee Supreme Court. We are
hopeful that there will be a favorable outcome from that court. Philip Workman's case received
much attention in the media and much community support. It is critical that the
same happen for Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, a 48-year-old African American, whose
execution date is set for April 10. Abdur'Rahman was convicted of a homicide
committed in Nashville (Davidson County). Between 1913 and the most recent
execution in 1957, a total of 26 people were executed for crimes committed in
Davidson County. Twenty-one of them, 81%, were Black. Two-and-a-half times as
many Black men were executed for rape as white men for murder. As a child Mr. Abdur'Rahman
suffered horrific physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. When he was
incarcerated as an adolescent, he was repeatedly raped. Abdur'Rahman has a long
history of serious mental illness, which has never been adequately treated. Abdur'Rahman had extremely poor
representation at trial. In the first place, trial counsel had a conflict of
interest because he was receiving payments from someone who, potentially, was
facing criminal charges in the same incident as Abdur'Rahman. The federal
District Court found the trial counsel performed absolutely no investigation
into the circumstances surrounding the defense, or into the defendant's
background. Even the prosecutor, John Zimmerman, admitted that guilt was not
open and shut in Rahman's case. Abdur'Rahman admits he was at
the scene of the crime. Physical evidence indicates that he was not the
assailant. He was convicted on the testimony of the co-defendant, who may have
been the assailant, and who received lower charges for his willingness to
testify. The trial counsel called no witnesses, did no investigation, and
presented no evidence at all during the guilt stage of the trial. At sentencing,
he presented no mitigating evidence. Eight of the 12 trial jurors have given
affidavits saying that if they had known of Rahman's background of
well-documented long-time mental illness and brutal abuse, they would not have
voted for death. John Zimmerman, the prosecutor
in the case, has been cited for misconduct in a number of cases, including Mr.
Abdur'Rahman's. The Tennessee Supreme Court held that in this case, Mr.
Zimmerman's conduct "bordered on deception by which he was able to get
before the jury information which was not evidence in the case they had under
consideration. The action of the state was improper." The court denied
Abdur'Rahman relief, however, holding that the prosecutorial misconduct had been
"harmless." Given that this is a death case, such a finding seems
bizarre, but it demonstrates the inadequacy of appellate review to correct
errors. Abdur'Rahman's case is a classic example of the trap created for
defendants by prosecutorial misconduct, defense ineffectiveness, and appellate
indifference. A positive development happened
on Jan. 30, when Tennessee's Legislative Black Caucus held a press conference
calling for an end to the death penalty in Tennessee and specifically mentioning
Abdur'Rahman and Workman. But we're worried it won't be enough. It's extremely
important that people express the desire for the governor to commute Abu-Ali
Abdur'Rahman's sentence. Write to Don Sundquist, State Capital Building,
Nashville, TN 37243; email: dsundquist@mail.state.tn.us; Telephone:
(615)741- 2001; Fax: (615)532-1353. The best hope we have for clemency in this
case will come from an outpouring of public opposition to the execution. —Professor Margaret Vandiver |
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