Ultimate Penalty

The rape and murder of eight-year-old Cary Ann Medlin on September 1, 1979 shook Tennessee to the core. The particular cruelty and viciousness associated with the murder shocked and disgusted the citizens of the Volunteer State. The citizens of the state demanded justice. To the vast majority of Tennesseans, justice meant executing the murderer - and the quicker the better. Ultimate Penalty: Executing Robert Glen Coe is the true story of the events from the murder of Cary Ann Medlin on September 1, 1979 until the execution of Robert Glen Coe more than twenty years after he confessed to the brutal crime. It also deals with the many issues raised from the murder until Coe's final minutes of life on April 19, 2000. Ultimate Penalty: Executing Robert Glen Coe details Coe's long legal battle to stay alive and the frustration felt by Cary Ann Medlin's family and others that wanted Coe put to death for his crimes. Along the way, this book explores in some detail the lives of those involved, paying special attention to Robert Glen Coe's life before he turned murderer. In the interest of truth and justice, there is no unnecessary editorializing in Ultimate Penalty: Executing Robert Glen Coe. There was little need to add any comments outside of the facts. The story speaks for itself. However, in the interest of fairness, some misstatements made in the course of the two decades Coe attempted to avoid the Tennessee death house are exposed. The author briefly sketches the ire that federal judge John Nixon engendered in his efforts to set aside Coe's conviction. The author also discusses Nixon's continuing efforts to delay the Coe execution even after a higher court had overruled him. Ultimate Penalty: Executing Robert Glen Coe looks at some of the political issues wrapped around the Coe execution battle and touches upon the ongoing capital punishment debate and those that favor and oppose it. While the author does not offer an opinion on the subject, he does encourage readers to investigate the issues surrounding the death penalty and to draw their own conclusions. One thing the author does not do is sensationalize. The events are what they are. There is no need for hyperbole or extreme comments. Relating the facts in a simple, straightforward way is the best way to tell this story. Ultimate Penalty: Executing Robert Glen Coe is the first in a series of six books (dubbed the Ultimate Penalty Series) that will tell the true stories of those executed in Tennessee since the year 2000. The facts surrounding the six executions are different, but some of the same issues arose in all of them. While each of the cases meandered through the court system for years, and authorities took pains to ensure that they received due process, there are those who still contend that Tennessee treated the murderers unfairly. Those opposing capital punishment hold that none of the six men put to death deserved execution. Each of the six cases had its own unique set of controversies and those controversies lingered. In some cases, the controversies are not resolved to this day. While each book in the Ultimate Penalty Series relates a story of an execution on its own, the series in total will detail Tennessee's continuing struggle with capital punishment in the 21st Century.