Bredesen rejects Reid's clemency request

[SoulTrainOz]

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has denied 7-time killer Paul Dennis Reid a request for clemency.

Reid, who is scheduled to die early Wednesday morning, did not sign the clemency petition. Nor has he signed paperwork that would continue his appeals. His lawyers, however, sent the documents to the governor Monday, citing that Reid was mentally ill and that he should not be executed.

Bredesen, in his denial, noted that because the courts have and continue to review whether he is mentally competent, it would not be appropriate for him to use his powers of clemency.

At the time of Reid's crimes, Bredesen was the mayor of Nashville.

(source: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

[SoulTrainOz]

Prosecutors have asked a federal appeals court to allow convicted serial killer Paul Dennis Reid to be executed early tomorrow morning as planned, 1 of 2 executions slated in Tennessee in the next 12 hours.

Reid, who was found guilty of killing 7 people at eateries in Nashville and Clarksville, was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 1 a.m. Wednesday. However, U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell issued a stay in the case earlier today, not long after the Tennessee Supreme Court refused to halt the execution.

The state is now appealing Campbell's stay to the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati. The state wants the execution to proceed as scheduled.

The twists and turns in Reid's legal case today are similar to the events of 2003, when a federal appeals court stepped in when Reid was 4 hours away from being strapped to the gurney. At that time, the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a stay until a full evidentiary hearing could be held to determine whether Reid, who had given up his appeals, was mentally competent.

Today, Campbell ordered a hearing to determine whether Reid is competent to give up his appeals.

Reid was convicted of a Tennessee record of 7 murders at Midstate restaurants, all committed in 1997.

Meanwhile, the execution of convicted killer Sedley Alley is still set for Wednesday, although his lawyers hope the courts will step in and stop the process to order DNA testing performed on evidence in the case.

Alley was convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of Memphis-area Marine Suzanne Collins.

(Source: The Tennessean & Rick Halperin)