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Attorney Asks Execution Date Not Be Set For Harbison

Friday, September 03, 2010

An attorney for a Chattanooga man facing the death penalty is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court not to set an execution date.

Dana Hansen Chavis said the facts of the case against Edward Harbison do not warrant execution.

Harbison was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Frank Russell in St. Elmo in 1983.

Attorney Chavis said Harbison had a limited criminal record.

She said numerous other murders have occurred during burglaries and they did not result in death penalty verdicts.

The appeal says that race "was a likely factor for singling out Mr. Harbison for the death penalty in a 1983 case that unintentionally ended in the death of a 62-year-old white woman."

She said, "It is never too late for the Court to right a wrong."

Harbison had been set for execution by lethal injection in 2007, but a federal judge ruled that "lethal injection as Tennessee administers it is 'cruel and unusual punishment'."


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