Stories from Thursday, January 22, 2004

"Blatant hypocrisy" is what Dana Hansen, attorney for death row inmate Gregory Thompson, calls the state attorney general's request that the Tennessee Supreme Court set an execution date for Gregory Thompson. Thompson, a 41-year-old African-American, was convicted in 1985 of the murder in Coffee County of 28-year-old Brenda Lane of Shelbyville. ...

There is no polite way to say it. Shawn Bryant is fat ... so morbidly obese that the floor in his mother's mobile home is patched with slabs of raw lumber, covering a path of holes that surrendered to his massive bulk. The bench seats of the family van are destroyed, shattered from the strain of carrying his gargantuan frame...

"We're taking your couch," an intruder told Laura A. Hernandez as she entered the living room of her Ward Circle home Wednesday afternoon. Hernandez responded by calling 9-1-1. The intruder, a woman, and a man who stood by the front door as she attempted to move the couch ran to a black truck and left, said Officer Charles Merlo. The couch was left behind...

Stanley Smotherman has announced his candidacy for re-election as Bedford County Road Superintendent in the Feb. 10 Democratic primary. A native of Bedford County, he has worked for Bedford County Highway Department for the past 25 years, serving as superintendent since 2000. During his tenure as superintendent, he has served as first vice president of the Region III Highway Officials Association...

The Bedford County Junior High Tournament opens today at Liberty School. Liberty's girls take on The Webb School at 4:30 p.m. followed by the Liberty and Cascade girls at 6. Cascade and Unionville compete in a 7:30 boys game. Tonight's girls winner plays Unionville at 6 p.m. Saturday, followed by tonight's boys winners at 7:30 Saturday, for the championships. The boys losers tonight play for third place at 4:30 p.m. Saturday...