On 4 April 2000 a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stopped Robert Coe’s execution 15 hours before it was due at 1am local time. The court said that it wanted to review Tennessee’s procedures for determining mental competency for execution. It is not clear how quickly the court will conduct its review and issue a ruling though it has ordered the lawyers to file their legal papers by 6 April and promised an “expedited review”. There is therefore the possibility that if their decision goes against him, Robert Coe could be rescheduled early next week to become the first prisoner to be executed in Tennessee since 1960.
