Court rules hearing not needed in death case
May 4, 2004
MANCHESTER, Tenn. — A lower court decided Monday not to hold a competency hearing for Gregory Thompson, whose execution is set for Aug. 19.
Last month, the Tennessee Supreme Court set the date and ordered the Coffee County Circuit Court to review whether Thompson was mentally competent to be killed.
Thompson was convicted in 1985 of abducting Brenda Blanton Lane 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.
Judge Gerald Ewell denied Thompson’s motion seeking a hearing.
“Under our law, it’s justice delayed — but nevertheless justice,” District Attorney Mickey Layne told The Shelbyville Times-Gazette.
Dana Hansen Chavis, Thompson’s lead lawyer, said her client suffers from psychotic delusions.
“Everybody agrees, including State Attorney General Paul Summers, that Mr. Thompson is seriously mentally ill,” Chavis said. “He believes that they seek, to execute him not because of the crime but because our office has been unable to find his military uniform, Grammy awards and gold bars he buried.”
From The Knoxville News Sentinel, March 5, 2004
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