The Fabricator
Coe finds commutation conditions too taxing
Convicted murderer Robert Glen Coe, soon scheduled to make the long walk to Tennessee’s death chamber, was offered commutation by Gov. Don Sundquist, but passed on the offer due to what the killer called “totally unacceptable conditions.”
Sources say representatives of Sundquist approached Coe with a deal: Coe’s death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment on the condition that the killer tour the state to argue against Sundquist’s tax plan.
Coe was to be kept under heavy guard and in shackles during his speeches, sources said. There was even talk of a televised, tag-team-style tax debate on statewide television.
“What we have in mind,” confessed one Sundquist aide, “would be a debate with Howard Baker and Ned McWherter on the governor’s side and, on the other side, Tommy Hopper and Robert Glen Coe. It’d be magnificent television.”
Not everybody thinks so. “This is a really dirty trick,” said an enraged Hopper, reached in his Studebaker Lark driving between anti-tax speaking engagements. “Trying to yoke me with Coe is the lowest thing I’ve heard of.”
“This is a really dirty trick,” agreed an enraged Coe from Death Row. “Trying to yoke me with Tommy Hopper is the lowest thing I’ve heard of. I told the governor’s people that I’d take my chances with the appeal process.
“Besides,” the convicted killer added. “I’m actually in favor of the governor’s tax plan. I personally think it’s great!”
