The Week That Was
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Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking,” joined Tennessee religious leaders in organizing a grassroots campaign for clemency for condemned killers Robert Glen Coe and Philip Ray Workman. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the prisoners’ last appeals, meaning only Gov. Don Sundquist can spare their lives. Coe, who is to die by lethal injection on Oct. 19, would become the first to be executed in Tennessee since 1960.
The University of Tennessee claimed an internal investigation cleared four football players of charges of academic fraud. The players, suspended after a report by ESPN’s Web site, were back in the lineup for the Vols’ victory over Auburn. University president J. Wade Gilley told reporters: “ESPN.com is not the judge, jury and executioner.” That apparently was good enough for the state’s media, which have all but dropped the story. ESPN, meanwhile, worried about revenge-minded fans. Police escorted announcers Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried to Neyland Stadium before the Auburn game.
The Legislature learned that it’s losing $16 million in federal money by failing to enact tougher highway safety laws. Most of that money would flow to the state if lawmakers would make it mandatory to buckle up and outlaw driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent.
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