The Inferno
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"This is a remarkable book. It chronicles the 25 year journey of Philip Workman through what US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun termed "the machinery of death". It is the most detailed, intimate and complete look at a death row prisoner that I have encountered. The story is told through Ingle's eyes as Workman's pastor; the perspective of another condemned prisoner; and courtesy of the Tennessee Public Records Act, the viewpoint of the state officials who colluded to see that Workman was executed despite MORE THAN AMPLE EVIDENCE that he did not murder the police officer who he was convicted of killing.
A memoir such as this is wrenching for it raises fundamental questions about our moral fabric as a nation. What does it mean to kill people, in our names, who do not kill people and are not eligible for the death penalty? This and other questions are addressed in the book as the reader descends with Philip Workman into the Inferno. It is a journey, like Dante's in the original Inferno, that will leave your soul transformed". Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking
Joseph B. Ingle
Joe Ingle, a North Carolina native, left the South after college and moved to East Harlem to join the E. Harlem Urban Year program. He spent his senior year at Union Theological Seminary visiting prisoners at the Bronx House of Detention. Prior to that experience, his initial time with prisoners, he was a typical white guy from the South. When he returned to the South, he was a changed man. Living in Nashville, TN, he began working against mass incarceration and the death penalty with the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons which he helped create. This led him to visit every Southern death row and create a web of relationships with the women and men imprisoned there. Working to save their lives led him to meetings in governor’s offices, legislatures, courtrooms, churches, synagogues, bishop and archbishop offices. And it led him into the homes of the families of the condemned and victims. Realizing many of the condemned had no lawyers, he along with three colleagues, created a law project—The Southern Center for Human Rights—to represent them. Although the death penalty is an issue, for Ingle it is primarily about people caught in the killing machinery. It is where he has devoted his adult life. He resides in rural Nashville, Scottsboro, where the residents are dedicated to farming organically and preserving the environment. He and his wife Becca raise blueberries with some 200 bushes in the field.
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The Inferno - Joseph B. Ingle
The Inferno
A Southern Morality Tale
Joseph B. Ingle
© 2011 Joseph B. Ingle
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduction or storage in whole or in part in any form.
Published by Westview, Inc. at Smashwords
Smashwords Edition
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No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, either mechanically or electronically, without the express written permission of the author. Short excerpts may be used with the permission of the author or the publisher for the purposes of media reviews.
Dedication
To the memories of
Marie Deans, Minda Lazarov, William Styron, Tom Wicker, and Harmon Wray
Con la più sincera gratitudine per nostra amicizia
Contents
Timeline of Events
Cast of Characters
Introduction
The First Circle
The Second Circle
The Third Circle
The Fourth Circle
The Fifth Circle
The Sixth Circle
The Seventh Circle
The Eighth Circle
The Ninth Circle
The Tenth Circle
The Eleventh Circle
The Twelfth Circle
The Thirteenth Circle
The Fourteenth Circle
The Fifteenth Circle
The Sixteenth Circle
The Seventeenth Circle
The Eighteenth Circle
The Nineteenth Circle
The Twentieth Circle
The Twenty-first Circle
The Encompassing Circle
The Twenty-second Circle
The Twenty-third Circle
The Twenty-fourth Circle
Purgatorio
Epilogue
Not Innocent Enough
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Timeline of Events
August 5, 1981
10:22 p.m. Philip Workman takes the cash receipts from Memphis Wendy’s restaurant and directs the employees to a back room.
10: 33 p.m. Philip leaves the restaurant with cash in a bag under his sweatshirt with a .45-caliber pistol in his pants. He encounters Memphis police lieutenant Ronald Oliver. They chat. Philip sees other police cars arriving and runs. He trips on a curb and falls, then surrenders with hands raised. Lieutenant Oliver strikes Philip on the head from behind with a blunt object, probably a flashlight. Philip’s gun discharges in the air. With blood running down his face, he rises and flees. Other shots are fired. Oliver lies mortally wounded.
11:55 p.m. Police apprehend Philip Workman. He is taken to John Gaston Hospital for treatment of head wound, dog bites, and shotgun pellets to buttocks.
August 6, 1981
4:00 a.m. Police officers go to the morgue and take Polaroid photographs of Oliver’s wounds.
5:00 a.m. Police officers convene at the Violent Crimes Unit. They review the photos of Oliver’s wounds, Workman’s gun, Oliver’s clothing, and the shell casings and live round found at the crime scene. Afterward an exchange of information
takes place.
6:00 a.m. Police officers return to the crime scene to look for additional evidence.
11:30 a.m. Dr. James Spencer Bell performs an autopsy on Ronald Oliver.
12:25 p.m. Itinerant drug addict Harold Davis calls the Memphis Police Department from a Memphis motel claiming to have seen the Oliver shooting. Police officer Curry Todd picks Davis up and brings him to police headquarters.
1:25 p.m. Terry Willis, employed next door to the Wendy’s, discovers what he thinks is a ball bearing in the parking lot. Without looking at it, he puts it in his toolbox. After a friend tells him about the shooting, he looks at the object again, realizes it is an aluminum-jacketed .45-caliber bullet, and calls police.
2:25 p.m. Memphis police log in to the property room the pristine .45-caliber bullet Willis discovered in the parking lot.
2:30 p.m. From an array of photographs (i.e., without a lineup), Harold Davis identifies Workman as the man he claims to have seen shoot Oliver.
August 18, 1981
Grand jury issues an indictment against Philip on two counts: (1) felony murder of Lt. Ronald Oliver, and (2) premeditated murder.
March 22, 1982
Philip’s trial begins with jury selection.
March 24, 1982
Jury is sworn in. Philip pleads not guilty.
March 25, 1982
Opening statements are delivered; testimony from prosecution witnesses Sandra Oliver, Dr. James Bell, Wendy’s employees, clean-up man at Wendy’s, police officers Aubrey Stoddard and Stephen Parker, and Harold Davis. Police officers Larkin and T. L. Cobb also testify.
March 26, 1982
Trial continues with testimony from prosecution witnesses Terry Willis, Gerald Wilkes, and police officers Stephen Parker and T. L. Cobb. Philip Workman testifies on his own behalf after being instructed by his court-appointed lawyers not to contradict the police.
March 27, 1982
The crime scene diagram is introduced through the testimony of police officer Franklin. Crime scene diagram is interpreted to explain how crime happened. Memphis Crime Scene Squad member C. A. Russell testifies that at approximately midnight he found Workman’s gun in the vicinity of his arrest. Terry Willis testifies about finding the ball bearing that turned out to be a round.
FBI agent Gerald Wilkes testifies that the bullet Willis found could not have been the fatal bullet, because it exhibited no mutilation and no blood, fiber, or material was on it.
March 29, 1982
Philip testifies about his actions as he left the Wendy’s. Prosecution closes with a description of the crime and how Workman cooly and deliberately pulled the trigger and sent the bullet down this barrel and into the body of [Oliver].
March 30, 1982
10:50 a.m.Jury retires for deliberation.
12:05 p.m.Jury finds Philip guilty of felony murder. Sentencing hearing begins. Prosecution describes aggravating circumstances. Defense presents no mitigating circumstances despite indicating they would do so in their opening statement.
March 31, 1982
Philip sentenced to death by electrocution.
March 1, 1985
First post-conviction appeal filed by Howard Wagerman.
June 1989
Paul Morrow of the Capital Case Resource Center ensures that all death row prisoners file pro se petitions for a second post-conviction appeal under newly passed legislation.
November 1990
Chris Minton, of the Capital Case Resource Center, assumes lead lawyer role for Philip Workman. Judge Colton dismisses Philip’s post-conviction appeal.
March 20, 1992
Criminal Court for Shelby County dismisses petition for post-conviction relief.
November 29, 1993
Tennessee Supreme Court denies Philip’s application for permission to appeal the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision affirming the trial court’s dismissal.
February 28, 1994
U.S. Supreme Court denies Philip’s certiorari petition.
July 18, 1994
Habeas corpus petition, Philip R. Workman v. Ricky Bell, warden is filed in federal court.
October 18, 1994
State responds to petition but argues to dismiss the new claims.
May 2, 1995
State moves for summary judgment, asking to dismiss the opposition on its face.
September, 18, 1995
Philip’s lawyers file a response to the state.
October 29, 1996
Judge Julia Gibbons grants summary judgment, thus denying Philip a chance to present his claims of not shooting Lieutenant Oliver on the basis of newly discovered evidence.
November 1, 1996
Judge Julia Gibbons swears in her husband, William Gibbons, as district attorney of Shelby County, Memphis.
June 17, 1998
Philip’s case is argued in front of a three-judge panel in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio.
October 30, 1998
Sixth Circuit Court’s opinion is delivered.
November 12, 1998
Petition for rehearing is filed by Philip’s lawyers.
October 4, 1999
U.S. Supreme Court denies Philip’s certiorari review.
November 29, 1999
U.S. Supreme Court denies rehearing petitions from Philip and Robert Coe.
December 9, 1999
Tennessee Supreme Court removes attorney general Paul Summers from working against Robert Coe due to his prior involvement as an appellate judge.
January 3, 2000
State supreme court sets an execution date for Philip Workman and Robert Coe of April 6, 2000.
January 2000
Joe Ingle visits with Justin Wilson, the governor’s senior policy adviser.
January 27, 2000
Philip files for clemency.
March 2000
Tennessee legislature changes method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection.
April 3, 2000
First clemency hearing is held before governor’s appointee Justin Wilson. Philip packs his belongings and is transferred from death row to the death house.
April 4, 2000
Philip receives his first stay of execution from the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit and is transferred back to his cell on death row.
April 6, 2000
Robert Coe is executed by poisoning through lethal injection.
September 5, 2000
Sixth Circuit dissolves its stay of execution after a 7–7 vote, the tie you die
vote.
October 5, 2000
Tennessee Supreme Court sets a second execution date for Philip of January 31, 2002, even though a stay of execution is in effect from the U.S. Supreme Court
January 25, 2001
Second clemency hearing is held at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the Board of Probation and Parole, which functions as the clemency board in capital cases.
January 26, 2000
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stays Philip’s execution.
January 28, 2001
Despite the stay, Philip is instructed to pack up his belongings, is shackled, and taken to deathwatch again.
January 30, 2001
Despite the state’s efforts to dissolve the stay of execution, it holds and Philip is transferred back to death row.
February 28, 2001
Tennessee Supreme Court sets a third execution date for Philip of March 30, 2001.
March 27, 2001
Philip once again boxes up his belongings and is transferred to the death house. This is his third trip there.
March 29, 2001
Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle presides over Workman v. Bell. Philip’s brother Terry and Joe Ingle both visit him on death row. Tennessee Supreme Court stays Philip’s execution forty-five minutes before it is to occur; orders Shelby County Criminal Court to hold an error coram nobis hearing to determine innocence claims.
April 6, 2001
Judge Colton of Shelby County Criminal Court issues a gag order in Philip’s case.
April 17, 2001
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals postpones the error coram nobis hearing Colton has scheduled for April 23.
May 2, 2001
Appellate court remands Philip’s case to trial court.
July 31, 2001
Philip’s lawyers file a motion for a default judgment.
August 1, 2001
Shelby County Criminal Court issues a letter that no proof will be taken at the hearing on August 13, 2001, but that arguments will be heard on the motion for default judgment.
August 3, 2001
Harold Davis is arrested for shoplifting in Jacksonville, Florida, and booked into jail. Shelby County Criminal Court reverses its decision and orders that proof be taken at the August 13 hearing.
August 13, 2001
Error coram nobis hearing takes place before Judge Colton; Davis testifies that he did not see Philip Workman shoot Lieutenant Oliver.
August 16, 2001
Vivian Porter testifies in error coram nobis hearing that Davis was with her on the night of the crime.
October 16, 2001
Dr. Cyril Wecht testifies in the continued error coram nobis hearing that within a reasonable degree of medical certainty
Philip’s bullet did not kill Lieutenant Oliver.
November 5, 2001
Trial juror Wardie Parks testifies in continued error coram nobis hearing that he would not have voted to convict Philip if he knew Harold Davis was not there and that forensic evidence revealed it was not Philip’s bullet that killed Ronald Oliver.
January 7, 2002
Judge Colton rules against Philip Workman, denying relief, despite the fact that the only proof offered by the state was the trial court record.
June 1, 2002
Dr. O. C. Smith bomb incident occurs. Philip’s birthday.
June 2, 2002
Dr. Smith discovered wrapped in barbed wire with an explosive device
strapped to his chest.
December 30, 2002
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirms the Shelby County Criminal Court’s denial of the error coram nobis petition.
May 19, 2003
Tennessee Supreme Court denies Philip’s request for appeal.
June 2, 2003
Tennessee Supreme Court denies Philip’s request for reconsideration of its denial of the appeal; sets a fourth execution date of September 24, 2003, for Philip.
August 12, 2003
Results of polygraph test taken by Harold Davis reveal he did not see Philip shoot Oliver. Philip’s clemency team files clemency papers.
September 9, 2003
Philip is interviewed by Dr. George Woods, who determines he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
September 10, 2003
Philip packs and prepares to wash down his cell in preparation for moving to death row for September 24 execution.
September 15, 2003
Governor Bredesen announces a 120-day reprieve for Philip pending the outcome of a federal criminal investigation related to the case. Federal judge Bernice Donald of Memphis holds a hearing on Philip’s case and decides to await conclusion of the federal criminal investigation.
January 9, 2004
Governor Bredesen extends Philip’s reprieve until April 15, 2004.
February 10, 2004
O. C. Smith is indicted by a grand jury in Memphis for illegal possession of a destructive device and lying to federal investigators.
April 15, 2004
Philip’s reprieve expires.
August 2004
Chris Minton files a request for a stay of execution.
September 22, 2004
Philip’s fifth execution date.
Mid-September 2004
Stay of execution is granted by Judge Donald.
October 18, 2004
Judge Donald denies Philip’s 60(b) petition after previously granting a stay of execution to consider it.
January 2005-2006
Litigation proceeds on 60 (b) issue in several cases throughout the country, and the issue is ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Lethal injection issues litigated in California, North Carolina, and Ohio. Florida halts executions pending review of lethal injection problems. O. C. Smith prosecution continues.
October 31, 2006
Philip’s lawyers file a Motion to Alter or Amend
citing the Demjanjuk case.
December 2006
Judge Donald denies Philip’s motion to reconsider.
January 16, 2007
Tennessee Supreme Court sets Philip’s sixth execution date for May 9, 2007.
February 1, 2007
Governor Phil Bredesen announces he is halting executions until the execution protocol has been reviewed.
April 5, 2007
Public hearing is held on the state’s lethal injection protocol.
April 2007
Judge Donald denies Philip’s stay of execution request but issues a certificate of appealability indicating the appeal has merit.
April 30, 2007
Tennessee Department of Corrections revises its lethal injection protocol but ingredients remain the same.
May 1, 2007
Philip’s lawyers file 60 (b) petition to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
May 2, 2007
Report on execution protocol; moratorium on executions in Tennessee ends.
May 4, 2007
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel votes 2–1 against Philip’s 60 (b) appeal. Federal district court judge Todd Campbell issues a stay of execution based on a review of the lethal injection protocol.
May 7, 2007
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, composed of two Republicans and one Democrat, vote 2–1 to lift the stay of execution.
May 9, 2007
Philip is executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
May 9-12, 2007
Litigation takes place on whether Philip’s request to maintain his religious belief that the body is the temple of the Lord
will be respected and thus prohibit an autopsy.
May 12, 2007
Agreement is reached among parties to a partial autopsy, and Philip’s body is released for burial.
May 14, 2007
Philip’s funeral is held in Nashville with family and friends. He is buried surrounded by people who loved him and are filled with tears of rage and grief.
Cast of Characters
Anderson, Townie: Clemency board member
Ball, Officer: Memphis police officer on the security squad at the crime scene
Ballard, Jay: Governor Sundquist’s legal counsel
Bell, James Spencer: Shelby County medical examiner in Memphis at the time of the crime
Bell, Ricky: Warden of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
Blackmun, Harry: U.S. Supreme Court justice
Bonnyman, Claudia: Chancellor, Chancery Court, Part IV, Davidson County, Nashville
Bredesen, Phil: Governor of Tennessee 2003–2011
Campbell, Donal: Commissioner, Department of Corrections, under Governor Sundquist
Campbell, John: Assistant district attorney in Memphis
Campbell, Kenny: Death row prisoner and close friend of Philip Workman
Campbell, Will: Director of Committee of Southern Churchmen and founder of Southern Prison Ministry
Cavanaugh, Jim: Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent involved in O. C. Smith investigation
Cobb, T. L.: Memphis police officer, one of the first officers on Workman crime scene
Colton, John P.: Criminal court judge in Shelby County, Memphis
Conte, Andrea: Wife of Governor Phil Bredesen
Cooley, Dave: Deputy governor for Governor Phil Bredesen
Craig, Steve: Citizen witness to events at the crime scene, friend of Aubrey Stoddard
Dalton, Bill: Clemency board member
Davis, Harold: Supposed eyewitness to Lt. Ronald Oliver’s shooting
Dawson, Don: Clemency attorney for Philip Workman
DeBerry, Lois: Speaker pro tem of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly, from Memphis
DeSente, Lacey: Investigator in Phoenix with the federal public defender’s office who helped locate Harold Davis
Dills, Don: Clemency board member
Dodillet, Paula: Ronnie Oliver’s daughter, who believed Philip’s version of events
Donald, Bernice: Federal district judge in Memphis, currently serving on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Dorsey, Jefferson: Co-counsel for Philip Workman
Drowota, Frank: Justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court
Dunbar, Tony: Director of Southern Prison Ministry
Dysinger, John: Seventh Day Adventist, friend of Philip Workman
Fackler, Martin L.: Conducted bullet studies providing evidence of Philip’s innocence
Fleming, Mike: Host of a radio show in Memphis
Gamble, Dixie: Produced the film on Robert Coe
Gibbons, Julia: Federal district court judge in Memphis, currently serving on Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, wife of William Gibbons
Gibbons, William: District attorney for Shelby County, Memphis, currently Safety and Homeland Security commissioner for the state of Tennessee and husband of Julia Gibbons
Harbison, E. J.: Death row prisoner
Hassell, Larry: Clemency board member
Hayes, J. R.: Memphis police officer in charge of Workman crime scene
Henry, Kelley: Lawyer for the federal public defender’s office in Nashville
Hess, Inspector: Inspector for the Memphis police involved in the exchange of information meeting
on August 6, 1981
Hollie, Sergeant: Memphis police sergeant involved in the exchange of information meeting
on August, 6, 1981
Hutton, Robert: Defense lawyer in Memphis who assisted in Workman case
Jackson, Captain: Memphis police captain involved in the exchange of information meeting
on August, 6, 1981
Johnson, Don: On death row with Philip before his execution
Kahan, Gerald: Defense lawyer in Memphis
Keenan, Clyde: Memphis police officer, led the shoot team
that checked police weapons after incident of August 5, 1981
Kill, Kerry Scott: Cleaning the Wendy’s restaurant at closing time on August 5, 1981
Kitchens, Jerry: Assistant district attorney during trial and clemency; moved on to work in U.S. Attorney’s office in Memphis
Larkin, Officer: Memphis police officer who drove Officer Stoddard to the hospital
Lawson, Jim: Minister who visited Philip on death row before execution
Lax, Ron: Private investigator, Memphis
Leuchter, Fred: Rehabilitated the Tennessee electric chair and created lethal injection paraphernalia
Levy, Bruce: Medical examiner for Davidson County, Nashville, and state of Tennessee, later dismissed after being apprehended in Mississippi with marijuana, which probably came from Nashville crime lab
Lewis, Captain: Memphis police captain, attended the exchange of information
meeting on August 6, 1981
Lyle, Ellen Hobbs: Chancellor, Chancery Court, Division III, Davidson County, Nashville
Marquez, Gene: ATF agent involved in O. C. Smith case
Marshall, Larry: Head of the Northwestern University Innocence Project
McCleskey, Warren: Death row prisoner in Georgia and friend of Joe Ingle
Minton, Chris: Lead lawyer for Philip Workman on appeal
Moore, Mike: Lawyer in the attorney general’s office, attended capital punishment meeting
Morante, Kathy: Prosecutor in the Nashville district attorney’s office
Morrow, Paul: Lawyer with the Capital Case Resource Center, filed pro se appeals for all death row prisoners
Music, Lieutenant: Memphis police officer who was at the exchange of information meeting
on August 6, 1981
Nelson, David: Republican appointee to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Nixon, John: Federal district court judge in Nashville
Null, Garvin: Citizen witness to the events at the crime scene
Oliver, Ronald: Memphis police lieutenant who was shot and killed August 5, 1981 at the Wendy’s restaurant in Memphis
Oliver, Sandra: Lieutenant Oliver’s widow; testified at trial against Philip Workman
Parker, Stephen: Memphis police officer at the crime scene; moved on to work in U.S. Attorney’s office in Memphis
Parks, Wardie: Juror on Philip Workman’s trial in 1982
Peterson Eddie: Assistant district attorney at Workman’s trial
Pierotti, John: Former Memphis district attorney who joined the clemency team for Workman
Porter, Vivian: Friend of Harold Davis and witness to his whereabouts the night of the crime
Pruden, Glenn: Lawyer for the attorney general’s office
Rickard, Jeff: Citizen witness at the crime scene
Ryan, James L.: Republican appointee to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Scruggs, Harry: Second post-conviction appeal lawyer for Workman
Siler, Eugene E., Jr.: Republican appointee to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Singletary, Victor: Baptist minister who officiated at Philip Workman’s funeral
Smith, O. C.: Shelby County medical examiner who testified at two clemency hearings
Sperry, Kris: Medical examiner for the state of Georgia; testified for defense about Oliver’s wounds
Spitz, Werner: Forensics doctor and author of the leading text in the field, Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation.
Stoddard, Aubrey: Memphis police officer who shot at Workman and was wounded in the arm by return fire
Strother, Don: Prosecutor in the trial of Philip Workman
Summers, Paul: Attorney general for the state of Tennessee
Sundquist, Don: Governor of Tennessee, 1995–2003
Swearingen, Sheila: Clemency board member
Tarkington, Amy: Lawyer in the attorney general’s office
Todd, Curry: Police officer who brought Harold Davis to police headquarters on August 6, 1981; later elected to the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of Tennessee. He introduced the legislation that allowed guns in bars and restaurants. In October 2011, he was arrested for DUI with a deadly weapon in his car.
Tomashevsky, Steve: Philip’s lawyer in his civil case against O. C. Smith
Trauger, Aleta: Federal district judge in Nashville
Traughber, Charles: Chairman of the clemency board
Wagerman, Howard: Court-appointed appeal lawyer for Workman in state court
Wecht, Cyril: Preeminent forensics doctor
Welborn, Jerry: Chaplain at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
Whalen, Joe: Lawyer in the attorney general’s office
Wilkes, Gerald: FBI agent, ballistics expert, testified for prosecution at Workman trial
Willis, Terry: Holiday Auto Parts employee who found the magic bullet
Wilson, Justin: Senior policy adviser to Governor Sundquist, currently comptroller for the state of Tennessee
Woods, George: Psychiatrist with internationally recognized expertise in trauma
Workman, Philip: Death row prisoner
The Inferno
Canto I
At one point midway on our path of life,
I came around and found myself
Now searching through a dark wood,
The right way blurred and lost
How hard it is to say
What that wood was,
A wilderness, savage, brute
Harsh and wild
Only to think of it renews my fear!
So bitter, that thought, that
Death is hardly worse
—Dante Alighieri
(Translated by Robin Kirkpatrick)
Joe Ingle outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institute (RMSI).
Introduction
When in my life pilgrimage I came around and found myself / Now searching through a dark wood,
I did so in a prison while visiting on death row. This may seem an odd place to encounter a guide as Dante found Virgil for his journey into the Inferno, but death row is where my guide presented himself. Of course, he did not know he was a guide, and I did not know I was about to descend into the Inferno.
My guide, Philip Workman, resided on death row in Nashville, Tennessee. We grew close after I had already encountered what the author William Styron described in the conclusion of Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness: For those who have dwelt in depression’s dark wood, and known its inexplicable agony, their return from the abyss is not unlike the ascent of the poet, trudging upward and upward out of hell’s black depths and at last emerging into what he saw as ‘the shining world.’ There, whoever has been restored to health has almost always been restored to the capacity for serenity and joy, and this may be indemnity enough for having endured the despair beyond despair.
After profound melancholia for three consecutive autumns (1988–1990), I felt as Dante described his exit from the Inferno: E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle [And so we came forth, and once again beheld the stars]. The reasons for my melancholia are outlined in my previous work Last Rights: 13 Fatal Encounters with the State’s Justice. I had spent sixteen years working with the condemned across the South and had lost many friends to the state killing machinery. Yet a decade had passed since then, and Bill Styron and I had become close through our mutual fight against the death penalty. It seemed that what he had shared with me in conversation in 1989 was indeed the case: I could endure the depression and never have it return.
So when my visits with Philip Workman began in earnest in 1999, I believed I had learned valuable lessons about my own ability to cope with melancholia and that I had put it behind me. Those lessons had come at a significant cost to my well-being, so I did not underestimate the power of the killing machinery in this country nor the collateral damage it inflicted on people like me who drew near it.
Hence I began my friendship with Philip in a manner that was not naïve. More than almost anyone in the country, I knew full well what realm I was entering by visiting death row. However, my reckoning of the geography of my soul proved to be in error. Rather than leaving the Inferno behind me, I had entered the dark wood
and lost my way. And the only way out proved to be through the Inferno. So, as Dante did with Virgil, I would descend with Philip through the circles of Hell.
Philip Workman makes a fist to accentuate a point in conversation in Unit 2 RMSI.
The First Circle
On August 5, 1981, it was hot in Memphis, Tennessee. Of course, it’s almost always hot in August in Memphis, which rests on a bluff over the Mississippi River. The day was unusual, though, in that the high temperature came at night, near 10:00 p.m., when the weather service recorded 93 degrees in the muggy atmosphere.
Philip Workman noticed the heat, but he was a Southern boy and accustomed to it. He had grown up in the South—Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky—the son of a military man. Abandoned by his mother, he was raised by his German stepmother, whom his father had brought home to Texas after being stationed in the U.S. Army in Germany. At age seventeen, desiring to get away from home, Philip chose the same career route as his father and joined the army. But after receiving his honorable discharge, he came back