Feb. 7 set as Thompson execution date

The Tennessee Supreme Court has set Feb. 7, 2006, as the execution date for the man convicted in the murder of a former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter.

"It's very good news," said Barbara Brown, sister of Brenda Blanton Lane who was stabbed to death by Gregory Thompson. "I hope it will actually take place."

Feb. 7, 2006, is the second execution date set in this case by the state's high court following Thompson's conviction in Coffee County Circuit Court. Aug. 19, 2004, was to have been when Thompson would die by lethal injection.

When the state Supreme Court set the August 2004 date, the state Supreme Court sent the case back to the circuit court for a determination of Thompson's competency to be executed. The case has taken several turns since then, including a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brown and others have repeatedly said they want this part of the judicial process completed so they can put the matter in the past.

Thompson was convicted of using a rusty butcher knife in 1985 to kill Lane after abducting her from the Big Springs Shopping Center parking lot where Wal-Mart was located at the time. He's confessed to that and driving her to a remote area in Coffee County where she was killed. He abducted Lane to get her car so he and his girlfriend could drive to Marietta, Ga.

While the Coffee County Circuit Court decided Thompson didn't warrant a competency hearing, Thompson sought relief from the federal courts. A federal district court stopped the execution after a federal appeals court reopened the case, but the state prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled the appeals court abused its discretion.

Twelve days ago, the district court lifted its directive that Thompson's execution be stopped and on Monday last week, the State Attorney General's Office asked the state Supreme Court to set another date for Thompson's execution.

Thompson is being held at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. The state Supreme Court has directed the warden to have Thompson executed in less than 4-1/2 months.

Brown, of the Longview community, didn't know whether she would attend the execution.

"I don't know," she said this morning. "Probably, but I haven't made any definite plans on it."