Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 24, 2006 0:07:24 GMT -5
Wednesday
Tennessee has executed only 1 death row inmate since the Supreme Court
decided to allow states to reinstate the death penalty in 1976, but that
could change Wednesday with inmates Paul Dennis Reid and Sedley Alley
scheduled to be executed by lethal injection within hours of each other on
the same day.
With appeals pending, it's still possible that both men could get a stay,
but correction officials are getting ready for a double-execution just in
case.
"We're going forward as if both executions will happen that day," said
Correction Department spokeswoman Dorinda Carter.
Even though the death penalty remains politically popular in Tennessee, it
hasn't been used since 2000 when the state executed child killer Robert
Glen Coe by lethal injection.
The last time 2 people were executed in the state was 1955, and the most
executions in 1 day were 4 in 1922. Carter said the state can handle
multiple executions because the death watch area, where prisoners are
moved three days before their scheduled execution, has 4 cells.
"Both men would be placed there," said Carter.
Reid, 48, was convicted of 7 murders at fast-food restaurants in Nashville
and Clarksville during a 3-month period in 1997. He received 7 death
sentences.
Court records and previous testimony say Reid is mentally ill, brain
damaged and that he believes he is being monitored and tormented by a
military government.
Although he has been granted 2 previous stays, Reid has refused to sign
legal papers to continue his appeals.
Earlier this month, Reid's sister filed a motion asking that her brother's
execution be postponed because he's incompetent. The sister is not talking
to reporters, and Reid's attorney refused to comment, but the motion filed
earlier this month says a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge was wrong
for not granting a stay of execution and for failing to conduct a
competency hearing.
Reid dropped his appeals on 2 of his death sentences in 2003, clearing the
way for his execution in April of that year. But another sister appealed
to a federal appeals court, which delayed his execution.
The other inmate, Alley, is accused of kidnapping, sexually mutilating and
killing a 19-year-old woman near Memphis in 1985.
Attorneys for Alley, 50, are trying to get DNA testing of murder scene
evidence they say could show he didn't comment the murder and possibly
provide information about who did.
A state appeals court refused last week to order DNA testing on
crime-scene evidence, but Alley's lawyers say they will continue his
appeals.
"Mr. Alley should be entitled to DNA testing," said Kelley Henry, an
assistant federal public defender on Alley's case. Alley confessed to the
murder, but argued at trial and on earlier appeals that he was not legally
responsible because he suffered from multiple personalities. He began
arguing his innocence in 2004.
Barry Scheck, co-founder of the nonprofit legal clinic called the
Innocence Project and a member of Alley's legal team, contends a
comparison of DNA found on the murder weapon, the victim's clothes and
other murder-scene evidence might turn up a new suspect if compared with a
national database of DNA from convicted criminals.
Scheck also contends the victim's former boyfriend, who has never been
accused in the killing, could be a suspect.
(source: Associated Press)
Tennessee has executed only 1 death row inmate since the Supreme Court
decided to allow states to reinstate the death penalty in 1976, but that
could change Wednesday with inmates Paul Dennis Reid and Sedley Alley
scheduled to be executed by lethal injection within hours of each other on
the same day.
With appeals pending, it's still possible that both men could get a stay,
but correction officials are getting ready for a double-execution just in
case.
"We're going forward as if both executions will happen that day," said
Correction Department spokeswoman Dorinda Carter.
Even though the death penalty remains politically popular in Tennessee, it
hasn't been used since 2000 when the state executed child killer Robert
Glen Coe by lethal injection.
The last time 2 people were executed in the state was 1955, and the most
executions in 1 day were 4 in 1922. Carter said the state can handle
multiple executions because the death watch area, where prisoners are
moved three days before their scheduled execution, has 4 cells.
"Both men would be placed there," said Carter.
Reid, 48, was convicted of 7 murders at fast-food restaurants in Nashville
and Clarksville during a 3-month period in 1997. He received 7 death
sentences.
Court records and previous testimony say Reid is mentally ill, brain
damaged and that he believes he is being monitored and tormented by a
military government.
Although he has been granted 2 previous stays, Reid has refused to sign
legal papers to continue his appeals.
Earlier this month, Reid's sister filed a motion asking that her brother's
execution be postponed because he's incompetent. The sister is not talking
to reporters, and Reid's attorney refused to comment, but the motion filed
earlier this month says a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge was wrong
for not granting a stay of execution and for failing to conduct a
competency hearing.
Reid dropped his appeals on 2 of his death sentences in 2003, clearing the
way for his execution in April of that year. But another sister appealed
to a federal appeals court, which delayed his execution.
The other inmate, Alley, is accused of kidnapping, sexually mutilating and
killing a 19-year-old woman near Memphis in 1985.
Attorneys for Alley, 50, are trying to get DNA testing of murder scene
evidence they say could show he didn't comment the murder and possibly
provide information about who did.
A state appeals court refused last week to order DNA testing on
crime-scene evidence, but Alley's lawyers say they will continue his
appeals.
"Mr. Alley should be entitled to DNA testing," said Kelley Henry, an
assistant federal public defender on Alley's case. Alley confessed to the
murder, but argued at trial and on earlier appeals that he was not legally
responsible because he suffered from multiple personalities. He began
arguing his innocence in 2004.
Barry Scheck, co-founder of the nonprofit legal clinic called the
Innocence Project and a member of Alley's legal team, contends a
comparison of DNA found on the murder weapon, the victim's clothes and
other murder-scene evidence might turn up a new suspect if compared with a
national database of DNA from convicted criminals.
Scheck also contends the victim's former boyfriend, who has never been
accused in the killing, could be a suspect.
(source: Associated Press)