“One By One, They’re Dying”: Activists Protest Tennessee’s Fifth Execution in a Year

Summary: On the Saturday before Tennessee killed Stephen Michael West, the fifth man to be executed in the state’s death chamber since August 2018, some 20 people gathered in a parking lot just down the road from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. It was not yet 7 a.m., and the air was already thick with humidity. People wore hats and comfortable shoes and passed around sunscreen.