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    • Gary Wayne Sutton’s family calls on Tennessee governor to review death row case
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    Gary Wayne Sutton’s family calls on Tennessee governor to review death row case

    Pabio Posted on

    Defenders of Tennessee death row inmate Gary Wayne Sutton have called on Gov. Bill Lee to review the case as the state prepares to resume executions.

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    The family of a Tennessee man on death row called on Republican Gov. Bill Lee to review the case for a possible pardon during a news conference Friday.

    “I beg you, Governor Lee, all we’re asking is to just sit down and look at Gary’s case,” said Carolyn Miller, a member of the Justice for Gary Wayne Sutton group.

    Gary Wayne Sutton was convicted of the 1992 murders of siblings Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam in Blount County, located south of Knoxville. Sutton has maintained his innocence in the matter and his defenders have argued that the case against Sutton was flawed.

    Miller told USA TODAY in an interview before the news conference that she was in a relationship with Sutton at the time of the murders and got back in touch when she saw that he was, at the time, the one of the next nine people to be executed.

    “What we’re asking the governor to do is just sit down and look at this,” Miller told USA TODAY. “You’ll see what we’re talking about. At this point, he’s the only one with the power to help.”

    The call for a review was echoed by James Sutton, Gary’s 94-year-old father, who spoke at the press conference.

    “Oh, it hurt me. It hurt me a lot. Gary didn’t do anything like that,” Sutton said of her son’s conviction.

    The United States has executed 23 men this year: A look at the state of the death penalty

    Press conference highlights pain felt by families of those on death row this Christmas

    Noted anti-death penalty activist Rev. Jeff Hood, who spoke at the press conference titled “Not Another Christmas Without Gary,” told USA TODAY in an interview before the press conference that Acting as a spiritual advisor to those on death row during the holiday season brings clarity to his work.

    “Christmas is a time that testifies to what is possible in terms of our criminal justice system, that this love can break in, can change the hardest of hearts and that love can heal things,” Hood said to USA TODAY.

    Miller told USA TODAY that the holidays are difficult for the families of those on death row.

    “It’s just harder around the holidays because that’s the time of year when you should be with your family,” Miller said.

    Hood said holding the news conference during the holiday season reinforced the message supporters are trying to send to the governor.

    “When we say there will be no more Christmases without Gary, we acknowledge that something is wrong. Something is seriously wrong. This is a grave injustice, and it is our duty to put it right “Hood said.

    Private detective questions state’s case

    Heather Cohen, a private investigator from Tennessee, reiterated her previous statements against the prosecutor’s case.

    “This is the worst case of injustice I have ever seen,” Cohen said. “Gary represents everything that is wrong with the justice system. He is an example of what happens when the integrity of the investigation is not respected.”

    Sutton’s defenders pointed to recanted testimony, the planting of shotgun shells and the revoking of the license of the medical examiner who testified in the case as reasons why Lee reviewed the case.

    “As a Southerner, having lived all over the South, in some of these remote places where I lived and loved, there is a rush to judgment because people were afraid. And in this situation, it doesn’t make no doubt it happened,” Hood said at the news conference.

    Ryan Desmond, Blount County Prosecutor stood behind the conviction in a statement released by Knoxville television station WVLT, noting that the case has been the subject of numerous appeals.

    “Dozens of judges reviewed his case and concluded that the evidence was more than sufficient to support his beliefs,” Desmond wrote. “This includes a review of the ‘new’ evidence that he believes supports his exoneration.”

    Lee suspended executions in 2022 and ordered a third-party review of the state’s execution protocol moments before. Oscar Franklin Smith was to be executed. An investigation by the Tennessean — part of the USA TODAY network — found that the state and its contractors regularly deviated from lethal injection protocol Tennessee was instituted in 2018, which likely resulted in the two convicted murderers being executed using expired, compromised or untested drugs.

    In September, Lee told Knoxville’s WATE television station that the state was “closer than further» to have a protocol that would lead the State to restart executions. Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada told state lawmakers in October that the department would have the protocol ready by the end of the year, according to WKRN.

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