[1][4] Dr. Cleland Blake, a forensic pathologist, determined that Sheila Romines was stabbed 17 times in the abdomen, including 14 torture-like cuts.
Dr. Blake concluded that Sheila experienced severe pain and suffering from the multiple stab wounds, especially those affecting the liver.
A fatal wound severed her right common iliac artery, leading to massive internal bleeding and death within 5-10 minutes.
Due to the fact that Martin was 17 years old at the time of the murder, he was ineligible for the death penalty in accordance with state law.
The judges rejected West's claims that he was threatened into helping Ronnie Martin kill the victims, stating that if he truly never wanted to cause the deaths of the Romines, he could have just leave without taking part in the stabbings and noted that the forensic pathologist verified that the crime was not the acts of a lone killer but more than one murderer was involved.
[8] A year later, West was scheduled to be executed on March 3, 2001, and he had waive his appeals, requesting to die by electrocution instead of lethal injection.
[13] West was one of the plaintiffs involved in a lawsuit, suing the state against its lethal injection protocols on the grounds that it was cruel and unusual punishment by causing excessive pain.
On March 29, 2017, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit, upholding the state's lethal injection protocols.
[14][15] By late 2018, Stephen West, who had exhausted all avenues of appeal against his death sentence, was listed as one of the several inmates in line for imminent execution between 2018 and 2020.
West and three other death row prisoners – Nicholas Todd Sutton, Terry Lynn King and David Earl Miller – filed a lawsuit against the state on November 5, 2018.
[21][22] On February 3, 2019, NBC News reported that West was one of four condemned inmates from Tennessee who were scheduled to be executed by the state in 2019, with another two (including Nicholas Todd Sutton) planned for 2020.
However, by July 31, 2019, West failed to make his choice after the deadline passed, and hence, his execution was slated to be carried out with lethal injection by default.
[29] It was further revealed in the clemency plea that West was born in an Indiana mental asylum, where his mother was under confinement over a suicide attempt of carbon monoxide inhalation while pregnant with West, and that his abusive upbringing was not presented to the jury, which would have allowed him to be spared the death sentence and his sentence should be lowered on humanitarian grounds.
[32] [33] At the last minute, West expressed that he did not want to die by lethal injection, but preferred to be executed by the electric chair.
[34][35] On August 15, 2019, 56-year-old Stephen Michael West was put to death by the electric chair at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Campbell also lamented over the fact that justice took 33 years in this case to finally arrive and supported the impending execution of West.
[41] After the death sentence was carried out, Eddie Campbell once again spoke to the media, stating that he believed justice still need to be served even though he chose to forgive both West and Martin.