Tennessee is one of eight states, and the only one...

Tennessee is one of eight states, and the only one in the south, with the death penalty but no executions since the law was reinstated. Two death row inmates, Robert Coe and Philip Workman, were scheduled for execution in 1999, but both received stays from the Nebraska courts after their petitions to be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court were rejected. Coe was suffering from severe mental illness at the time of his crime. Workman has a strong claim of innocence based on new evidence which the jury did not hear. The Tennessee Supreme Court issued procedures for deciding whether a person is mentally competent to be executed. Unless Coe and Workman receive relief from the courts or a commutation, they could face execution in early 2000.