Tennessee forbids the execution of the mentally retarded...
Tennessee forbids the execution of the mentally retarded and juvenile offenders
Tennessee forbids the execution of the mentally retarded and juvenile offenders. The state has life without parole. A jury decides the sentence. The Governor has absolute power over clemency. The Board of Pardons considers and makes non-binding recommendations concerning all requests for commutation. The Governor may commute a death sentence to life imprisonment when the State Supreme Court finds that the punishment should be commuted.
A 5-part investigative series in The Tennessean revealed that, of the 151 death sentences reviewed in appeal since 1977, half were overturned; since the death penalty was reinstated, at least 39 lawyers who have been disciplined by the state have represented defendants in capital cases and taht since 1977, 25% of the black men setenced to death have had all white juries and, in more than half of those cases, the victim was also white.
A 5-part investigative series in The Tennessean revealed that, of the 151 death sentences reviewed in appeal since 1977, half were overturned; since the death penalty was reinstated, at least 39 lawyers who have been disciplined by the state have represented defendants in capital cases and taht since 1977, 25% of the black men setenced to death have had all white juries and, in more than half of those cases, the victim was also white.