Free Republic

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday denied clemency to death row inmate Nicholas "Nick" Sutton one day before his scheduled execution. Sutton, 58, is scheduled to die by electric chair Thursday evening for the 1985 murder of Carl Estep. "After careful consideration of Nicholas Sutton's request for clemency and a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the state of Tennessee and will not be intervening," Lee said in a statement released Wednesday morning. Kevin Sharp, Sutton's attorney, described his client's petition as "a once-in-a-lifetime case for clemency." "He has saved the lives of three corrections...

A death row inmate who was convicted of killing four people — but who saved the lives of three corrections officers while in prison, according to his lawyer — is scheduled to be executed Thursday night. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied Nicholas Sutton’s clemency on Wednesday. “After careful consideration of Nicholas Sutton’s request for clemency and a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and will not be intervening” Lee said in a statement. Sutton, 58, was sentenced to die for fatally stabbing a fellow inmate in 1985, when he was serving...