Exceeding the limits of decency: The legal proceedings

Trial Proceedings

Mr. Thompson was tried and sentenced to death in Coffee County, Tennessee, which, according to 2000 Census reports, is 93.4% white and 3.6% African-American. Mr. Thompson was judged by an all-white jury — a jury that was seated after the prosecution used a preemptory challenge to exclude the single African-American in the jury pool. That juror was an alderman of the City of Manchester, well respected in the community and well qualified to sit on the jury. In arguing for a new trial based on unconstitutional discrimination, Mr. Thompson’s defense attorneys neglected to point to an alleged racist comment by the prosecutor as evidence that the exclusion of the black juror was the product of racial bias. According to Mr. Thompson’s attorney, following jury selection the assistant district attorney had said, “I hope they fry that nigger.” Thompson v. State, 958 S.W.2d 156, 168 (Ct. Crim. App. 1997). When this allegation finally came to light post-conviction, the courts refused to believe that such a comment had been made.

At the guilt phase of trial, Greg’s lawyers did not did not raise the issue of Greg’s mental health. They admitted guilt, saying to the jury, “Before you now, you see Greg Thompson--a 23-year-old black boy from Molena, Georgia. He does not deny the commission of the acts involved in this tragic situation, and he will not try to.”

Today, Greg Thompson’s guilt is not in question. He kidnapped and killed Brenda Lane so that he could use her car to escape what he, in a delusional state, believed was a gang of Ku Klux Klan members who were pursuing him and his companion, a white juvenile named Joanne McNamara. Greg quickly confessed to the crime and led police to the body of Ms. Lane. Joanne McNamara pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the murder. Greg was sentenced to die.

After the jury found Mr. Thompson guilty of murder, his defense attorneys made no effort to rebut the State’s contention that he was competent and had “faked” mental illness. The prosecutor told the jury that Greg “had no mental illness or defect which would render him harmful to himself or others.” The prosecutors argued that Greg “had no mental illness. He has no organicity, he has no brain damage, but he has antisocial behavior – mean and sorry. That is all that is wrong with Gregory Thompson. There is nothing wrong with him...” Despite being aware that there were profound questions about Mr. Thompson’s previous brain injuries and mental health, the defense called only an industrial psychologist (who had never testified in a capital case and who had no expertise in criminal behavior) to testify that Mr. Thompson would be a good prison worker. Consequently, the jury did not hear about Mr. Thompson’s mental illness. The only African-American jurist who has ever looked at this case, Judge Clay of the Sixth Circuit, was appalled by defense conduct that he characterized as “ineffective,” “unreasonable,” and an “abject failure.” Thompson v. Bell, 315 F.3d 566, 599-607 (6th Cir. 2003)(Clay, C.J., dissenting). In the words of Judge Clay, the defense “strategy” of failing to explore Mr. Thompson’s mental incompetence left Mr. Thompson “virtually defenseless, as though he were without any representation, facing the charges and a death sentence on his own.” Id. at 607.

Exceeding the limits of decency: The legal proceedings
Greg Thompson
Supporters

International Justice Project
National Mental Health Association
Tennessee Black Caucus

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