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On Thursday morning at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the state executed Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines for the March 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jackson Jenkins. He’d been on death row for 40 years.
Hines, 66, was accompanied in the execution chamber by Diana Gallagher, his spiritual adviser. From the witness room, his son — whom Hines’ attorneys said he met for the first time four days ago — joined a group of reporters who served as witnesses. When the witnesses entered the room at 10:21 a.m., they could hear a female voice singing. At 10:30, the curtains opened, and witnesses saw Hines stretched out horizontally across the gurney. Hines was paralyzed on his left side because of a series of strokes during the winter. Wednesday, his attorneys sought a temporary restraining order preventing the state from bending his left arm during the execution, but witnesses could not see his left side, and his arm was covered with a blanket.
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Soon after the curtains opened, Hines was asked if he had a last statement. “Not right now, thank you,” he reportedly said. Gallagher began to recite the Lord’s Prayer, her hand on his shoulder. According to witnesses, Hines lay still, visibly emotional. Then, he uttered his last words. Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada said they were, “Tell my son hello.” Witnesses reported they were, “Tell my son I love him.”
“How long do I have?” Hines asked soon after. Gallagher said she didn’t know. Hines’ breathing then became labored. The color drained from his face. Gallagher, who prayed for both Hines and the Jenkins family throughout the process, prayed again: “Teach us, teach us, teach us how to love one another … amen.” According to witnesses, Hines’ son muttered “amen” along with her.
At 10:42, the curtains to the chamber closed. At 10:43, the doctor pronounced Hines dead. Witnesses could not see if the doctor was Mark Walton Fowler, who oversaw Tony Carruthers’ aborted execution in May.
‘This Doesn’t Bring Closure … but It Does Bring Justice’
Jenkins, who went by “Jean,” was murdered at the Ce’Bon Motel in Kingston Springs, where she worked. Hines has maintained his innocence across four decades. In 2020, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted him a new trial in part because his original lawyer had declined to investigate Ken Jones, a local man and friend of the sheriff who found Jenkins’ body. The following year, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the lower court due to “overwhelming evidence of guilt that supported the contrary conclusion of a Tennessee court … among many other things … Hines’ flight in a bloodstained shirt, his theft of [Jenkins’] vehicle and money, and his ever-changing stories about stabbing and robbing various people on the day of the crime.”
Leading up to the execution, there was heavy scrutiny focused on Fowler and Strada. During Carruthers’ aborted execution, medical personnel could not find a vein for a backup IV to administer the dose of pentobarbital. According to TDOC, an attempt to insert a central line “pursuant to the protocol” was unsuccessful. Soon after, a sworn deposition of Fowler surfaced in which the doctor admitted he does not have hospital privileges, nor the authority to place a central line in a hospital setting.
Research by Kit Thomas, Hines’ attorney, also revealed IV access issues with several executions Strada has overseen going back to his stint as deputy director for the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Melissa and Dennis Jenkins, Jean’s children, both said there was too much focus on Hines’ theoretical suffering at the expense of focus on the crime and the suffering their mother experienced.
“Those people that think these cold-blooded murderers should not suffer or feel pain do not have any sympathy for the victims or their family,” writes Dennis in an email. “What about the cruel and inhumane treatment the victims suffered at the time of their death?” He reiterated similar sentiments at the press conference after Hines’ execution.
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Last week, Melissa told the Nashville Banner she had “absolutely no idea” how Hines’ execution would affect her.
On Thursday, she thanked the investigators, prosecutors and district attorneys who worked on the case.
“There is a deep void that will never be filled,” she said, her voice breaking. “A lifetime of memories we were denied. One senseless act not only took her life, but forever changed the lives of the many family members and friends who were robbed of the chance to hug her, laugh with her, hear her stories or see her beautiful smile again.”
“This doesn’t bring closure, nor does it bring my mother back,” she finished. “But it does bring justice.”
Garrett, Jean’s grandson, added that the day wasn’t a cause for celebration, but that they could finally close this chapter of their lives and start to move on.
“I’d like to start by saying that I grieve for the family of Catherine Jean Jenkins,” said Hines’ attorney Katherine Dix via a statement. “May God be with you.
“I also grieve the violence the State of Tennessee inflicted on us all today. ... What we witnessed here today is not normal, and I urge us all to not become numb or indifferent to the cruelty,” the statement continues. “The leaders of this state repeatedly invoke the sanctity of life, but today the State put to death a man who was blind and paralyzed on his left side, could not walk, and was in constant pain. They lifted his body onto a gurney and wheeled him to the death chamber.
“May God have mercy on us all.”
On the protester lawn, in addition to the usual attendees — faith leaders opposed to the death penalty and the Rev. Rick Laude, a pro-death-penalty supporter who shows up to each execution to advocate for victims — there were a few unfamiliar faces: a small group of men who preferred not to share their names or be filmed. They said they used to be on death row, had known Hines for years and had shown up to support.
“There are some rotten people [on death row],” one of them said, with an apology to the anti-death-penalty advocate with whom he was standing, “but [Hines] wasn’t one of them.” He said the only way to change the death penalty is through voting and advocacy.
For Melissa, a sticking point was that Hines maintained his innocence and did not confess or apologize. Her mother’s murder threw her life off track, leading her to move 800 miles away to escape what constantly hung over her in the suburbs of Nashville. To see family, she still has to drive by where the murder happened.
“The fact that [Hines] has never shown any remorse whatsoever, I can’t help but have hatred and animosity,” Melissa said last week. “You know what you did. You fought for 40 years. I don’t care that you had strokes in December. You’re still alive. My mom isn’t. You need to pay for what you did.”
Christa Pike, the only woman currently on Death Row in Tennessee, is the next person scheduled to be executed on Sept. 30.
Steve Cavendish contributed reporting to this story.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
