Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 25

Thread: Edward Jerome Harbison - Tennessee

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Edward Jerome Harbison - Tennessee




    Facts of the Crime:

    Edward Jerome Harbison was sentenced to death for the 1983 beating death of Edith Russell in Hamilton County. Harbison had done periodic repair work on Russell's home.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Chattanooga Man Set For Execution On Sept. 11---- Harbison On Death Row For 1983 Murder

    A Chattanooga man is slated to be executed on Sept. 11 for the 1983 murder of Mrs. Frank Russell.

    Edward Jerome Harbison has been on death row since his conviction of 1st-degree murder in a trial in 1984.

    On the night of Jan. 15, 1983, Frank Russell came home to find his wife dead in their home. The house was in disarray and had been burglarized, and there were signs of a struggle.

    After an investigation, the police went to the home of Janice Duckett, who was Harbison's girlfriend. There, the police recovered items taken from the Russells' home.

    Police said Harbison, when confronted, confessed to the killing. According to the confession, he and David Schreane went to the Russell home, found no one home, and began putting items from the home into Schreane's car.

    Mrs. Russell returned home, discovered the two men inside, and struggled with Harbison, who said he hit her several times with a marble vase, breaking all of the bones in her head.

    However, at his trial, Harbison petitioner testified that he did not kill the victim and was at Janice Duckett’s apartment on the night of the crime. He said he confessed to killing the victim because the police threatened to arrest Ms. Duckett and take away her children.

    Janice Duckett also testified at the trial that Harbison was at her home on the night of the murder.

    The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1986, and various appeals have continued since that time.

    (source: The Chattanoogan)

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Hamilton County Death Penalty Case Moves Forward

    The Tennessee Supreme Court today denied a motion to stay the execution of a death row inmate scheduled to be executed next month. Edward Jerome Harbison was sentenced to death for the 1983 beating death of Edith Russell in Hamilton County. Harbison had done periodic repare work on Russell's home.

    He is scheduled to be executed in the early hours of Sept. 26.

    In a petition filed by Harbison from prison earlier this month, he asked for a stay based on claims of fraud during his trial and appellate court review.

    The Supreme Court says Harbison's claims of fraud do not refer to any pending Tennessee court cases.

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Hamilton County death row inmate challenges execution

    A Chattanooga man scheduled to be executed by lethal injection this month is to appear Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Nashville for a trial to challenge the state's execution protocols.

    Edward Jerome Harbison, 52, is housed on Tennessee's death row at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the 1982 bludgeoning death of 62-year-old Edith Russell.

    Mr. Harbison is scheduled to die Sept. 26 at 1 a.m., but he is seeking to delay his execution based on what he claims are insufficient research into the method of death and inadequate training of execution personnel.

    Sharon Curtis-Flair, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Attorney General's office, said the federal trial is expected to last about 4 days.

    Mr. Harbison is challenging the method of execution and the training of those who will administer the lethal cocktail of drugs designed to kill him, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Nashville.

    "The protocol was adopted without any research or review to determine that a prisoner would not suffer pain beyond that attendant to the extinguishment of life," the complaint states.

    (source: Chattanooga Times Free Press)

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    September 19, 2007

    Federal Court Says Lethal Injection Cannot Be Used Against Chattanooga Man

    Harbison Had Been Set To Die Next Wednesday

    A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the state of Tennessee cannot use the present method of lethal injection to execute a Chattanooga man.

    Edward Jerome Harbison had been scheduled to die next Wednesday by lethal injection for the 1983 murder of Mrs. Frank Russell.

    Judge Aleta A. Trauger said lethal injection as Tennessee administers it is "cruel and unusual punishment."

    But she said the death sentence against Harbison remains in effect.

    She said, "For the reasons expressed in the accompanying Memorandum, it is hereby ORDERED that the defendants are ENJOINED from executing the plaintiff, Edward Jerome Harbison, under the current Execution Procedures for Lethal Injection (Defendant's Ex. 8), as this court has found those procedures violative of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, made enforceable against the states under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

    "JUDGMENT is hereby entered in favor of the plaintiff, Edward Jerome Harbison.

    "A stay of the execution of Mr. Harbison, presently scheduled for September 26, 2007, does not hereby issue. The Amended Complaint (Docket No. 63) does not request a stay. Moreover, a stay is not authorized, given the terms of Tennessee Code Annotated ยง 40-23-114(d), which provides, in part: In any case in which an execution method is declared unconstitutional, the death sentence shall remain in force until the sentence can be lawfully executed by any valid method of execution."

    http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_113656.asp

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    State wants new execution date for death row inmate----Ruling raises questions over 3-drug method

    The state attorney general will ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to set a later execution date for an inmate scheduled to die next week.

    Edward Jerome Harbison had been scheduled for execution Wednesday.

    But U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled earlier this week that Tennessee's current method for lethal injection is unconstitutional because the procedure could cause unnecessary pain.

    Harbison asked for a stay of execution, but Trauger declined to consider that motion since the state said it will ask for a postponement Monday.

    State officials did not say when they want to reset the execution.

    Cocktail is an issue

    Harbison was sentenced to death for the fatal beating of an elderly woman during a burglary in 1983.

    Trauger's ruling is another blow to the 3-drug cocktail used by every state that executes the condemned by injection.

    Federal judges reached similar conclusions in Missouri and California last year, and now states have to decide whether to defend the 3-drug method or find a new way to put death row inmates to death by injection.

    Death penalty opponents are heartened to see that three federal judges in 3 very different parts of the country have made similar findings.

    "It's definitely encouraging to know they're looking at this,'' said John Holdridge, director of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project.

    "I think there will be a general consensus one day soon'' that the 3-drug cocktail is inhumane.

    Pace could pick up

    Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that the rulings represent only temporary delays and that executions could resume at an increased pace if states are able to fix their execution protocols.

    "I don't think too many people expect the death penalty itself to be eradicated because of this particular problem,'' he said.

    All 37 states that perform lethal injections use the 3-drug cocktail.

    A similar ruling from California in the case of convicted killer Michael Morales resulted in the statewide suspension of executions. But the case out of Missouri, involving death row inmate Michael Taylor, could reach the U.S. Supreme Court first - that is, if the high court agrees to hear the dispute.

    The 3 drugs consist of an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer, and a substance to stop the heart. Death penalty foes have argued that if the condemned is not given enough anesthetic, he can suffer excruciating pain without being able to cry out.

    Other states may act

    Some legal experts said the Tennessee ruling might lead other states to rethink their execution procedures and encourage more judges to hold evidentiary hearings on their states' protocols.

    A panel of experts assembled by Gov. Phil Bredesen recommended earlier this year that Tennessee discard its three-drug cocktail in favor of a 1-drug approach, but the state corrections chief rejected that idea because no other state uses a single-drug method.

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    State Asks Harbison Execution Be Delayed

    The state is asking that the execution of a Chattanooga man be put off after a federal judge ruled last Wednesday that the state of Tennessee cannot use the present method of lethal injection to execute Edward Jerome Harbison.

    Harbison had been scheduled to die on Wednesday by lethal injection for the 1983 murder of Mrs. Frank Russell.

    The Tennessee Supreme Court must act on the request by Attorney General Robert Cooper for the delay.

    Judge Aleta A. Trauger said lethal injection as Tennessee administers it is "cruel and unusual punishment."

    But she said the death sentence against Harbison remained in effect unless the state chose to cancel it.

  8. #8
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    State Supreme Court sets new execution date

    The Tennessee Supreme Court has reset the upcoming execution of death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison.

    The state attorney general's office asked the higher court to move the execution date so it could respond to a federal judge's ruling that the state's method of lethal injection is unconstitutional.

    Harbison was scheduled to be killed Wednesday morning. The new date is Jan. 9, 2008.

    U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled last week that the state's method of lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has also agreed to hear arguments in another lethal injection case from Kentucky.

  9. #9
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Execution On Hold

    Tennessee death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison will not be executed Jan. 9 as scheduled, according to an order issued this morning by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The order ensures Harbison will not be put to death before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a lethal injection...

    Tennessee death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison will not be executed Jan. 9 as scheduled, according to an order issued this morning by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    The order ensures Harbison will not be put to death before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a lethal injection case out of Kentucky this spring. In that case, the inmate is challenging the constitutionality of the 3-drug cocktail used by most states—including Tennessee—in performing lethal injections.

    Earlier this year Haribson raised that same claim, and U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger barred Tennessee from using the current method of execution, calling it cruel and unusual. The state is appealing Trauger's ruling to the 6th Circuit, which today decided the appeal will have to wait.

    Although the appellate court order gives Harbison a reprieve at least until the spring, it's unclear if the cases of 2 other death row inmates will be temporarily halted as well. The execution of Pervis Payne currently is set for Dec. 12, and Paul Dennis Reid is scheduled to die Jan. 3.

    Tennessee Supreme Court Justice William C. Koch Jr. and several state lawmakers have voiced their belief that these inmates should instead be put to death by electrocution while the constitutionality of lethal injection is debated in federal courts.

    On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution to a Mississippi prisoner, suggesting that even if states attempt to proceed with executions, the high court might prevent further state killings until it rules on the current method of lethal injection.

  10. #10
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Federal Appeals Court Grants Stay of Execution for Tennessee Inmate

    A federal appeals court has granted a stay of execution for death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison.

    Harbison is challenging Tennessee's 3-drug method of lethal injection. A federal judge in Nashville previously ruled in his favor.

    The state attorney general's office appealed the ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio. That court granted Harbison's stay this week. He was scheduled to die Jan. 9.

    The decision comes as many executions nationwide have been put on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the 3-drug cocktail.

    Harbison and others argue it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •