Attorney General or House Keeper?

When a federal judge recently ordered the state either to retry or release Tennessee death row inmate Paul House, it appeared freedom finally was near for a man even the U.S. Supreme Court says is likely innocent. But with just two days left to contest the ruling, Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper announced plans to appeal, a startling move in light of DNA evidence that shreds the state’s original case.

Suffering from multiple sclerosis, House, 46, cannot walk, bathe or even eat without assistance, and his health continues to decline rapidly. Some fear he might not live long enough to be released if the state keeps filing frivolous appeals, while others suggest that might in fact be the state’s intention.

“My way of thinking is they are just trying to kill the man, hoping he dies before they can release him,” says Rep. Mike Turner, a Democrat from Old Hickory. “If that does happen, someone is going to have to answer for it. If this man dies in prison somebody needs to be removed from office.”

Last year Turner urged Gov. Phil Bredesen to pardon House, and in a letter signed by nearly three dozen lawmakers from both parties, warned that “allowing an innocent man to die in prison would be a shame and a blemish on our state.” But Bredesen rejected the advice, opting instead as he has before to let the matter linger in the courts.

The attorney general’s last-minute decision to file an appeal shocked and disappointed Turner, who believes there is a reluctance to admit the state made a mistake in this case. “Politicians and people who work for the government make mistakes all the time, just like everybody else does. But in this case we are dealing with somebody’s life,” he says. “I think they truly hope that he dies, because they know they won’t win the case if he’s retried.”

It seems the only person not surprised by the state’s latest decision to prolong the matter is Paul House, who already has spent nearly 23 years on death row for a murder that mounting post-conviction evidence suggests he didn’t commit. In recent years, House has believed he was on the brink of freedom again and again, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in June 2006. But each time, his hopes have been dashed.

“He now says he won’t get excited until they roll him out of his cell and tell him he’s going home,” his mother Joyce House says from her home in Crossville,Tenn. “He’s just been disappointed too many times.” At least once a month, the 66-year-old makes the 110-mile trip to Nashville to visit her son in a Tennessee Department of Correction medical ward.

Although she too has tried to contain her expectations, Joyce House admits this time she was convinced her son was coming home. Once again, she readied the spare bedroom she hopes her son will someday occupy, and lately she’s been stocking up on movies he might like to watch. (For example, she’s eagerly awaiting the DVD release of The Kingdom, which her son wants to see.) So when she received a phone call Friday afternoon from her son’s lawyer relaying news about the appeal, her heart sunk: “I was just devastated. I thought this time would be different.”

U.S. District Judge Harry Mattice Jr. in Knoxville issued a ruling on Dec. 20 saying House must be released and his conviction thrown out unless the state retries him within 180 days. It was promising news for House and his supporters, many of whom doubt the Union County district attorney would attempt a retrial given that the crux of the case has crumbled. Besides, even if the prosecutor did commence a new trial, they say a guilty verdict is unlikely given the absence of both motive and meaningful physical evidence.

But last week the attorney general filed a notice to appeal the judge’s order to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, meanwhile asking that House remain incarcerated until the appeal is settled, a process that one expert says could take “a very long time.”

“The AG’s litigation strategy is perpetuating further useless proceedings which cause further delays,” says the local death penalty lawyer, who did not want to be named, adding that such tactics come at great cost to taxpayers. “This is a heartless decision,” he adds, “especially in light of Paul House’s deteriorating physical condition. No legitimate public interest is served by the AG’s decision to appeal the district court’s decision.”

Although the attorney general has declined numerous requests to discuss his office’s handling of the House case, he did release a statement last week briefly summarizing the appeal. In it, Cooper argues that Judge Mattice erred in concluding that House received ineffective representation at trial and that material evidence might have been withheld from the defense. Finally, Cooper challenges the U.S. Supreme Court’s view of the case, arguing “there is sufficient evidence of guilt to support the jury’s verdict” and that “none of the alleged errors attributed to defense counsel and the state call into question the reliability of the jury’s verdict and sentence.”