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Executed man's last request honored -- pizza for homeless
POSTED: 2:16 a.m. EDT, May 10, 2007
By Ashley Fantz

(CNN) -- Hundreds of homeless people in Nashville, Tennessee, ate well Wednesday evening -- all in the name of a man who the state put to death just hours earlier.

Philip Workman, 53, requested that his final meal be a vegetarian pizza donated to any homeless person located near Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

He was executed there at 2 a.m. ET Wednesday.

But prison officials refused to honor his request, saying that they do not donate to charities.

That apparently upset a few people willing to pay for and deliver a lot of pies themselves.

Homeless shelters across Nashville were inundated with donated pizzas all Wednesday.

"I was like, 'Wow, Jesus!' " said Marvin Champion, an employee of Nashville's Rescue Mission, which provides overnight shelter, food and assistance to more than 800 homeless people a night.

"I used to be homeless, so I know how rough it gets. I seen some bad times -- not having enough food, the cupboards are bare. But we got pizza to feed enough people for awhile," Champion said.

"This really shows the people here that someone out there thought of them."
$1,200 worth of pies

Donna Spangler heard about Workman's request and immediately called her friends. They all pitched in for the $1,200 bill to buy 150 pizzas, which they sent to the Rescue Mission.

"Philip Workman was trying to do a good deed and no one would help him," said the 55-year-old who recruited a co-worker to help her make the massive delivery Wednesday evening.

"I knew my husband would have a heart attack -- I put some of it on the credit card. But I thought we'll find a way to pay for them later," she said. "I just felt like I had to do something positive."

Spangler wasn't the only person to place an order in Workman's name.

The president of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals read a news story about the prison denying the inmate's last request and ordered 15 veggie pizzas sent to the Rescue Mission Wednesday morning.

"Workman's act was selfless, and kindness to all living beings is a virtue," said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.

Not far away, 17 pizzas arrived at Nashville's Oasis Center, a shelter that helps about 260 teenagers in crisis. By 9 p.m. ET, more pizzas had arrived, said executive director Hal Cato.

"We talked to the kids and they understand what this is tied to and they know that this man [Workman] wanted to do something to point out the problems of homelessness."

When Workman robbed a Wendy's in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1981, he was a strung-out cocaine addict looking for a way to pay for his next high, he has said.

He was homeless at the time. Workman was convicted of shooting and killing Memphis Police Lt. Ronald Oliver during the robbery.

Many of the pizzas ordered in Workman's name were delivered anonymously, but the first 17 at Oasis Center came from a Minneapolis, Minnesota, radio station that devoted much of its morning show time talking about Workman's request.

"They were upset about it," said Cato.

He plans to call other homeless shelters in Nashville Thursday and share the pies. "They should be able to benefit from this, too," he said.

Cliff Tredway, the director of public relations for the Rescue Mission, said it's more than pizzas that helped that shelter.

"It's the story of a guy whose execution translated into a generous act," he said. "It's people donating to other people they don't know.

"It's about a group of people who society often writes off getting a pizza party today."

We must, of course, pray that poor Philip receive divine mercy and the Heavenly Kingdom - as well as praying that all those good people who gave the food in his name will likewise receive an abundance of grace.

I have yet to understand why it is that those of us who are strongly opposed to abortion are popularly supposed to be in favor of the death penalty, aggressive war, and a plethora of similar horrors.

Kyrie, eleison indeed. And thanks to poor Philip, who not only promoted a good work, but also brought smiles to many people and, I would hope, inspired people even far from him to do similar acts of generosity.

Fr. Serge

I struggle with this too. I always attributed that partially to me being raised as a European and very shortly in the US. But if we are to protect life in every form why do make many an exception when it comes to the death penalty ...

Their is a world of difference between the execution of a convicted murderer and the mutilation of the unborn. The Catholic Church supported the death penalty through the papacy of Pius XII, who himself stated "Even in the case of the death penalty the State does not dispose of the individual�s right to life. Rather public authority limits itself to depriving the offender of the good of life in expiation for his guilt, after he, through his crime, deprived himself of his own right to life".

And earlier from the time of Constantine!!! Does anyone know if there are still death penalties on the canon law books for heretics and witches? Were these laws rescinded or did they simply die out themselves?

The underground church and pre-nicean fathers were against the death penalty. SO the church is returning to its roots in its present stance also one would not be willing to support the death penalty when you were likely to recieve for merly practicing your religion. Now when you have the power to call who lives and dies as the case with post Nicean Church one would become tempted to reverese their stance which they did. Also canon law would not have little or nothing endorsing the power to kill heretics and witches that was the power of the state to do or not to do and this varied with the secular authorites some which were relatively tolerant and some like the Spanish were open to death as a solution to heresy. The church's job was not to declare the punishment but to determine if one was a heretic or not. That is still done by the church today.

I have been against the death penalty since my teen years - and that's a good bit of time! However, there is a tendency these days to believe that if one of the post-Vatican II popes said something, it supersedes anything held by any popes in earlier times. I don't think the more recent popes were given any heavenly revelations that make their opinions more valid than those of their predecessors. It's pretty clear that the Catholic Church has supported the death penalty for centuries, even though I personally oppose it.

John Paul II was a rigid man where the orthodoxy of doctrine is concerned, and not given to compromise himself, let alone the Church. Nevertheless he made his opposition to the death penalty clear - and in at least one case in the USA his intervention succeeded in saving a life.

Pius XII was also no moral or dogmatic relativist - and he intervened with the US government in an attempt to save the lives of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Unfortunately Pope Pius XII's intervention was not successful.

In addition, we have come to realize that there was and is a grave risk of killing an innocent man under the inaccurate impression that we are executing the guilty party - DNA has proved that in a number of recent incidents. Several years ago, the Governor of Pennsylvania gave a long-overdue pardon to the long-dead Jack Kehoe, as a gesture to symbolize repentance for the execution of the "Molly Maguires".

In England, the judge who sentence the Birmingham Six to life imprisonment some thirty years ago made it clear that if the option were open to him, he would sentence them to the death penalty. Many years later, the English review process demonstrated that they were innocent, and they were released. It is bad enough that they were deprived of so many years of liberty; how would one compensate the dead?

Fr. Serge

Actually, the Council of Lyons II called for the extermination of heretics and handed out plenary indulgences to those who did so. The death penalty for heretics, witches, and other undesirables may not have been in official canon law, but the Church definitely looked upon the state's use of torture and capital punishment with approval.

Joe

I used to be 100% pro-death penalty and I used to be a hawk on the issue of war. In the past few years, I've really moved away from these positions. I'm still not entirely opposed to the death penalty but I'm ambivalent about it. I believe in war only for the sake of self defense, and on this issue I'm even moving to a position close to pacifism. But, I also see the Church's entanglements with the state and politics (pos-Constantine) as a corruption of the original purity of the early Church. Sometimes, I think that if it weren't for Orthodoxy, I might be a Quaker or a Mennonite.

Joe

Outside of the Spanish Inquisition the death penalty and torture of heretics was not common so the church may have looked the other way at times but they did not approve of this activity as you presume and popes did write to Spanish to reduce their activity as even they saw what they did as an abuse at times. Many times people would commit heresey in order to not face secualar law but the rather tame in comaprision church heresey laws which rarely induced torture and the death penalty aside from a short time in Spain where there was an obvious abuse you have exagerrated the facts and ergo there is no official canon law on the subject for the reasons mentioned. And as you know any call by the pope for the extermination of heretics were poltically motivated because they were a threat to Christendom we would be praying to Allah right now if not for these calls to action. Don't be so quick to judge the actions of a more violent age from your modern framework of reference it was in many cases survival of the fittest religion or you to be killedm religious tolerance was the great american experiment and not a medevil option

Like I said the pre-Constantine church was anti-capital punishment so you haved a point in a change their but as far as war for only self-defense that is the point of view of the catholic church always. Augustine called for it Aquinas called for it and John Paul II called for one of the reasons he rejected the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war. The church has never taken the view of official pacifism that would be againt its tradition both east and west however its defeintly closer to the only for self-defense route and the leadership of John Paul II has the church definitely on that route and Quakers and Mennonites only survive in countries where religious freedom is fought for blood spilt by Catholics and Protestants who pay the price freddom requires so pacifist can practice their religion.