U.S. Judge Blocks 1st Execution Since ’60

A federal judge in Nashville blocked the execution of a condemned child killer, hours before he was to become the first person to be put to death in Tennessee in 40 years. Robert Glen Coe, 43, was to die by injection at 1 a.m. today for the 1979 kidnapping, rape and murder of 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin. U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger blocked the execution to consider a petition by Coe’s attorneys contending that he is not mentally competent for execution. Coe’s attorneys say he is insane and executing him would violate the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The state Supreme Court has found him sane for execution.