[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENNESSEE

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 19



TENNESSEE----stay of impending execution

Tennessee Inmate Gets Stay Of Execution


In Nashville, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of
execution Thursday for Donnie Johnson.

He was scheduled to die in the electric chair next Wednesday and would
have been the first prisoner put to death by that method in Tennessee in
46 years.

Johnson, of Covington, was convicted in 1985 of suffocating his wife by
stuffing a plastic garbage bag into her mouth in Memphis.

Kelley Henry, one of Johnson's lawyers, said the stay was issued based on
an argument filed by Johnson's attorneys in a brief a month ago, alleging
that the state had made a deal with a co-defendant in exchange for his
testimony against Johnson.

The state could challenge the stay.

(source: Associated Press)