|
|
| Inmate requesting competency hearing gets stay of execution |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/27/2004 |
|
A federal court in Chattanooga granted a Tennessee death row inmate a temporary reprieve last week. Judge Curtis L. Collier granted a brief stay of the Aug. 19 execution date set for Gregory Thompson, 42, to consider his habeas corpus petition and his request for a competency hearing. Thompson's federal public defender, Dana Chavis, said Thompson is mentally ill. Thompson was convicted Aug. 22, 1985, of abducting Brenda Blanton Lane, 28, from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Shelbyville, driving her to a rural area in Coffee County and stabbing her four times with a rusty butcher knife. Chavis, who has represented Thompson since 1998, said Thompson calls her office three or four times a day. She said the state and a prison doctor agree Thompson suffers from mental illness. Last year, a federal appeals court rejected Thompson's claim that his mental illness and social history should have been a large part of his defense during the trial and sentencing phase. The court also said Thompson hadn't offered any proof he was mentally ill at the time of the killing. The state hasn't executed anyone in more than four years. Robert Glen Coe died by lethal injection in 2000. Since then, three other inmates have come within days of execution in Tennessee before receiving stays. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think