Tennessee Inmate Executed, Last Words Shared with Son
On Thursday, a Tennessee inmate, 66-year-old Anthony Hines, was executed by lethal injection, and, remarkably, he sent his final message to his son, who witnessed the execution of his father. “Please say ‘hello’ to my son,” Hines reportedly said just before the execution, which was carried out as a consequence of his brutal murder of Katherine Jean Jenkins, a 54-year-old mother of four, in 1985.
Interestingly, Hines had not seen his son since he was just three years old. They had a brief reunion four days before the execution took place at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institute in Nashville.
Witnesses described the grim scene, noting how Hines was groaning and breathing heavily before being pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. The victim’s son, Dennis Jenkins, also attended the execution. He expressed a wish that Hines might feel “extreme pain” as he faced the consequences of his actions.
Reflecting on his mother’s death, Dennis shared an intense memory—when she was murdered, all she had for protection was a plastic spray bottle. Hines had been convicted of stabbing Jenkins, who was working as a motel maid at the time of the attack.
Dennis voiced his feelings, saying, “I hope he was in a lot of pain because what he did to my mom is nothing compared to what he might have just gone through.” It’s quite striking how emotions can run deep in such circumstances.
Hines had attempted to appeal the verdict, claiming that the supervising doctor was incompetent and arguing that the execution procedure might have been mishandled.
Remarkably, on the same day, three inmates were executed across the U.S., marking the first instance of a triple execution in 16 years. In addition to Tennessee, lethal injections were also carried out for inmates in Oklahoma and Alabama.
Usually, it is uncommon for more than one execution to be scheduled in a day, and having three is “extremely unusual,” according to Robin Maher, who leads the Death Penalty Information Center. Observers have indicated that the trio of executions occurring on the same day appears to be coincidental.
