Mentally ill inmate scheduled to die
A mentally-ill black man is scheduled to die Aug. 19.
Gregory Thompson, 42, was convicted in 1985 of the murder of a Coffee County woman, Brenda Lane, 28.
Thompson told authorities he killed Lane so he could use her car to escape what he believed was a mob of Ku Klux Klan members whom he believed were trying to kill him and his companion.
According to Thompson's attorney, Dana Hansen of the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, Thompson was not diagnosed with a mental illness until he entered prison.
"He had shown symptoms of a mental illness prior to his entering the system," Hansen said. "But he wasn't formally diagnosed until he was in prison."
Thompson, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in prison, was said to be "faking" his illness during his trial.
According to Hansen, the state argued Thompson was a cold-blooded killer who faked his insanity.
"Yet shortly after his arrival on death row," Hansen said, "He was diagnosed and he's been treated with anti-psychotic medication for the last 18 years."
Hansen said the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States has recently requested that the United States government take precautionary measures to prevent the state of Tennessee from carrying out Thompson's execution.
Supporters
International Justice Project
National Mental Health Association
Tennessee Black Caucus
Click here to sign the Electronic Petition for Clemency