Was an Innocent Man Put to Death?
February 3, 2009
‘I did not kill them’ condemned man says
By Kate Howard
THE TENNESSEAN
Steve Henley was already strapped to the gurney when the blinds were raised in the death chamber and his family saw him for the last time.
They’d spent the last hour together in sterile conference rooms, reminiscing about their father and praying about his exit from this life. They spent 12 long minutes staring at the blinds with no clue what was happening behind them. When the time finally came at 1:17 a.m. and a prison official raised the blinds, Henley lifted his head from the gurney as if surprised, and stuck out his tongue at his grieving family.
For the past two decades, Henley has insisted he did not fatally shoot Fred and Edna Stafford at their Jackson County home in 1985. Today was no different.
“I would like to say that I hope this gives Fred and Edna’s family some peace. In my experience in life, it won’t,” said Henley. “The death of a family member never brings anything but pain … I wish them the best. I’m sorry Fred and Edna had to go through what they went through. As I’ve said, ever since this happened, I did not kill them … I hope they can rest easy when this procedure is done.’’
He then expressed love to his family and said he was an innocent man.
Warden Ricky Bell gave the word and a three-drug cocktail began to drip into his veins as punishment for the murders 23 years ago.
Henley told his family to stop crying.
“You’re a pitiful bunch,’’ he said. “I’ll see you on the other side.’’
His daughter, son and sister shouted to him through the glass, saying they knew he was an innocent man and that he’s finally getting out of prison after all these years.
“Y’all never quit,” Henley said.
He shouted that he felt it coming. He made a snoring sound and fell silent.
His family — a daughter, son-in-law, son and sister — erupted in shouts and sobs and hugged one another. They recited The Lord’s Prayer with his spiritual advisor and anti-death penalty advocate, Stacy Rector. They said that he was free.
At 1:33 a.m., after more than 23 years on Death Row, Henley was pronounced dead.
Outside where media gathered, Henley’s son Greg Henley offered a statement.
“I forgive the state of Tennessee for executing our loving daddy,” Greg Henley said. “I want them to know I’m praying for both our side of the family and Fred and Edna Stafford’s family. But I also want you to know you executed an innocent man.”
In tears, Greg Henley left the podium.
Henley has always maintained that he was not the man who shot Fred and Edna Stafford and burned their house down in 1985. His co-defendant, Terry Flatt, testified that Henley was mad at the couple because he thought they owed his family money.
Flatt was given a reduced sentence for his testimony against Henley and served five years of a 25-year prison sentence.
Fred Stafford was standing on his porch when Henley shot him through the heart, according to court documents. Edna Stafford was also shot, but died from burns and smoke inhalation after Henley doused the Stafford house with gas and set it on fire, court documents said.
Prison officials said that Jack Stafford, the nephew of Fred and Edna Stafford, witnessed the execution from another room. He didn’t speak to the press.
About 75 people attended a prayer service for Henley at the Brookmeade Congregational Church Tuesday evening, and more than 65 people came out at midnight in weather well below freezing to hold a vigil for Henley as the hour of his death approached.
Among them was Michael McCormick, who served alongside Henley on Death Row for more than 20 years before McCormick was exonerated, based on DNA evidence and a re-trial.
“I never knew him to cause any trouble in 20 years,” McCormick said. “(Whether he’s innocent) is irrelevant in my mind. Killing is killing, and I don’t believe in killing.”
It was the first lethal injection in Tennessee since 2007, when Phillip Workman was put to death for killing a Memphis police officer.
On Monday, the U.S. 6th Circuit of Appeals denied motions from Henley’s attorney to issue a stay of execution. Denials followed from the U.S. Supreme Court and the Tennessee Supreme Court. The governor denied clemency Tuesday night.
Henley’s appeals relied on a legal challenge by death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison. In that case, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled in September 2007 that Tennessee’s three-drug lethal injection method amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because of the “substantial risk of unnecessary pain’’ to the inmate.
Trauger barred the state from using the method until it addressed problems with training and medical expertise. The state is appealing that ruling.
Even before Trauger’s ruling, executions had been on hold in Tennessee until officials could update a manual outlining how they should be conducted. But officials decided to resume executions after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection in Kentucky.
Contact Kate Howard at 615-726-8968 or kahoward@tennessean.com.
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PREVIOUS REPORT:
Just after midnight, Ray Stafford hopes, he’ll finally be able to put behind him the night his brother and sister-in-law were murdered.
While Nashville sleeps, the state will prepare to execute Steve Henley by lethal injection for the murders of Edna and Fred Stafford, who were shot to death at their Jackson County home 23 years ago.
Ray Stafford won’t be watching Henley’s last breath. He feels bad enough as it is.
“It stays in front of you all the time,” Stafford said of the pain of losing his big brother. “As soon as you get it back behind you a little bit, it comes to the front again.”
He attributes the back and forth to Henley’s appeals and decades of uncertainty about whether Henley would be put to death at 1 a.m. on Wednesday.
Death penalty opponents say there are still too many questions to put a man to death who claimed innocence from the beginning, and was locked up largely on the testimony of a co-defendant who served five years before receiving parole.
On Monday, the U.S. 6th Circuit of Appeals denied motions from Henley’s attorney to issue a stay of execution. His attorney, Paul Davidson, said he’ll take the appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court if a final appeal before the federal court fails.
“We want to exhaust all of our legal remedies, and we’re in the process of doing that,” Davidson said.
Last execution in 2007
Henley’s appeals relied on a legal challenge by death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison. In that case, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled in September 2007 that Tennessee’s three-drug lethal injection method amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because of the “substantial risk of unnecessary pain” to the inmate.
Trauger barred the state from using the method until it addressed problems with training and medical expertise. The state is appealing that ruling.
Even before Trauger’s ruling, executions had been on hold in Tennessee until officials could update a manual outlining how they should be conducted. But officials decided to resume executions after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection in Kentucky.
Henley’s execution will be the first in Tennessee in 16 months. The last lethal injection was in May 2007, when Philip Workman was executed for shooting a Memphis police officer.
Ray Stafford, who can hardly remember Fred Stafford without his wife of 40 years, hopes today is the end of it all for Henley. He still grieves the couple, 64 and 67 years old, who were “as good of people as there ever was.” He still remembers the night they were shot and their home was set ablaze.
“Twelve people convicted him and 12 people sentenced him,” Stafford said. “I think it ought to go on, and I think he did it.”
Co-defendant testified
According to news reports, Terry Flatt, Henley’s co-defendant, testified that Henley was mad at Fred and Edna Stafford because he thought they owed his family money.
“This literally was one man’s word against another man’s word,” said Stacy Rector, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing and Henley’s spiritual adviser. “The man who had everything to lose, who implicated himself, is the one who got the deal and walked away after 5 years.”
Fred Stafford was standing on his porch when Henley shot him through the heart, court documents said. Edna Stafford was also shot, but died from burns and smoke inhalation after Henley doused the Stafford house with gas and set it on fire, court documents said.
Henley’s death sentence was put aside once, in 1996, by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Davidson said he has an affidavit from an investigator saying that Flatt admitted in the past few months that he was given a deal and assured early parole for his testimony.
Rector led a phone bank Monday night to gather supporters to contact the governor and ask for clemency. Monday afternoon, Gov. Phil Bredesen’s spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said no request for clemency has been filed yet.
