If that happens, it would mark the first time the state has executed that many inmates in a single 12-month period in more than 50 years.
The state attorney general's office asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to set execution dates for Gaile Owens, Stephen Michael West and Billy Ray Irick. A request to execute Edward J. Harbison is expected soon.
All were convicted in the 1980s. For some of their victims' families, the delays have been excruciating. West was convicted in 1987 of murdering Campbell's sister-in-law and niece. The mother and daughter, ages 51 and 15, were stabbed to death.
"It was awful the way they had to die," said Campbell, 85. "I think everybody ought to be punished for what they do wrong.''
Some opponents of capital punishment and death penalty experts said the pace of executions in 2010 could well become the rule, not the exception.
"It's a definite possibility given the numbers we have on our death row and how long some of them have been there," said Stacy Rector, an ordained minister and executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
There are 89 inmates awaiting execution in Tennessee, making the state's death row the 10th largest in the country. Nearly 40 percent of Tennessee's death row inmates have been there at least 20 years.
Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons said the capital punishment appeals process is rife with delays that affect its effectiveness as a deterrent to crime.
"A lot of people who are facing the death penalty feel in their own minds they can ride it out for 25 or 30 years," Gibbons said.
Knoxville prosecutor Randy Nichols won one of the state's 1st capital convictions after the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. He believes the legal process allows expensive appeals to languish too long.
"It has an effect on victims," Nichols said. "They ask, 'Why has it been like this?' It's impossible to explain that."
Nichols believes the state should consider a more streamlined appeals process that would move cases through more quickly.
Others fear that could lead to the execution of innocent people.
In 1996, the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act set new restrictions and time limits for federal appeals on capital cases. Reforms are needed, most say.
Procedural obstacles in the legal system often prevent the courts from reviewing errors made during trials, generating more lawsuits that take more time to resolve, said Bradley MacLean, a law professor and attorney with the federal Office of the Post-Conviction Defender, which represents death row inmates.
Mistakes by lawyers
Since 1997, MacLean said, at least 107 people who were convicted and sentenced to death got relief because of constitutional violations or legal mistakes in their trials. Of those, 24 got their convictions or sentences thrown out because their trial lawyers didn't perform up to minimum standards.
The mistakes often happen because defendants facing capital punishment don't have enough money to put on a solid defense, experts said.
"This is an issue of being penny wise and pound foolish," MacLean said. "If the state allocated sufficient resources at the front end — to defense counsel who represent capital defendants at trial — the system would operate more fairly and more efficiently."
A Sept. 28 execution date has already been set for Owens, who was convicted of arranging the contract killing of her husband. Execution dates for Irick and West have not been set.
Upcoming Executions
Once a prisoner has exhausted his or her legal appeals, it falls to the Tennessee Supreme Court to set an execution date for that inmate.
GAILE OWENS
The crime: Owens, 57, was convicted of hiring a man to kill her husband, Ron Owens, in Memphis. Ron Owens was beaten to death in 1985. Sidney Porterfield, the hitman, also is on death row.
The defense: Owens' supporters say she should have been allowed to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison in 1985. She also had said she suffered from battered woman syndrome.
Went to death row: February 1986
Execution: Owens' execution has been set for Sept. 28.
STEPHEN MICHAEL WEST
The crime: West, 47, and another man were arrested in Union County in 1986 for kidnapping and killing Wanda Romines, 51, and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila Romines. The women were stabbed to death. West also was convicted of raping Sheila Romines.
The defense: West admitted in court to being present when the crimes were committed but denied participation. He made several claims in his appeals. Among them: that his lawyers were ineffective because they didn't bring up in court West's history of abuse at the hands of his parents.
Went to death row: March 1987
Execution: The state attorney general requested an execution date late last month. A date has not been set.
BILLY RAY IRICK
The crime: Irick, 51, was arrested for raping and killing a 7-year-old girl he had been babysitting in Knox County in 1985.
The defense: On appeal, Irick accused prosecutors of withholding evidence and making improper statements to jurors in his case. He raised other issues also. The state Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor's comments about the death penalty during his trial were inappropriate but that it wasn't serious enough to warrant overturning his sentence.
Went to death row: December 1986
Execution: The state attorney general requested an execution date last week. A date has not been set.
EDWARD J. HARBISON
The crime: Harbison, 54, was convicted in 1983 of beating Edith Russell to death with a marble vase after she walked in on him and another man robbing her Hamilton County home.
The defense: In his appeal, Harbison claimed his trial attorneys didn't do a good job of representing him and that police files that could have helped him weren't made available. He later challenged the state's lethal injection protocol.
Went to death row: October 1985
Execution: Harbison's execution was originally scheduled for October 2006. His execution date was changed three times in 2006 and 2007 because of legal challenges. He ultimately lost those, though his challenge of the lethal injection process did result in a short moratorium on executions in 2007. The state has not yet requested an execution date for Harbison. But in March the U.S. Supreme Court, the last outlet for judicial relief, declined to hear his appeal.
Source: The Tennessean, May 23, 2010
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