Delay sought again in Thompson execution

A Nashville lawyer has asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to do four things, any one of which could at least delay the execution of a man scheduled to die Feb. 7 as a result of his murder of a Shelbyville woman in 1985.

Gregory Thompson is the confessed and convicted killer of Brenda Blanton Lane, a former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter who was working for the United Methodist Publishing House when she was car-jacked for a ride to Georgia and stabbed to death in Coffee County.

"If we have to have hearings on this, they will most likely be a battle of mental health professionals," said Mickey Layne, the district attorney in Manchester where Thompson was prosecuted by Layne's predecessor, Buck Ramsey, with Ken Shelton, one of the assistant DAs.

But Jennifer Smith, a lawyer in State Attorney General Paul Summers' office, is assigned to respond to the pleas filed Thursday for Thompson by his lawyer, Michael J. Passino.

Passino is requesting:

* An order to stop the execution until various legal matters can be heard;

* The Supreme Court to reconsider its order scheduling Thompson's execution;

* The court to receive a notice that there's a change in Thompson's mental health status with regard to his insanity and competency to be executed; and,

* A certificate of commutation which the court may issue toward a recommendation to the governor for clemency.

"This is not unexpected," said Barbara Brown of Longview, Blanton's sister and closest surviving relative. "I had expected all these things to be done."

Brown said there's a possibility that she will attend any hearing which might arise from such motions.

"I hope to keep it out of a hearing," said Smith, the associate deputy attorney general who handles death penalty cases at Summers' office.

A response to Passino's requests will probably be filed Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, said Smith, who "definitely" concurred with Layne's assessment that if a hearing is conducted then it will be a contest between mental health experts.

"That's been the way this case has gone for the past several years," Smith said.

The two attorneys also agreed that there are two things left to be determined in this case: That Thompson knows the state wants him executed, and that it's because of the death of Lane.

"Based on everything that I've seen in the record ... there's no doubt in my mind that he knows he's been sentenced to die and that it's for the death of Brenda Blanton Lane," the Coffee County district attorney said. "I anticipate there will be weeks, if not months, spent on this issue."

Layne and Smith were asked if Thompson could have gone mad in jail and if so, whether that be a reason to stop the execution.

"It's possible," Layne replied, "but it would be very much the exception because the threshold (of knowing what's ordered and why) is so low. ... It's possible to be delusional on other aspects of their life."

Randy Tatel, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, last weeks said schizophrenia prevents Thompson from grasping the fact that the state is about to execute him.

Thompson hears voices, is often suicidal and has eaten his own feces, according to Tatel.

Smith said, "If they say he's doing that (eating feces), I'll have to check with the prison," and others to verify the assertion.

That's part of her due diligence, she said, adding, "Certainly the state does not have any interest in executing someone who doesn't know what's happening."

However, she repeated, it's a low threshold toward execution -- Thompson must know that's ordered and why.

Phone calls on Friday to Passino's office resulted in no return call by the Times-Gazette's deadline on Saturday afternoon. His 9,780-word filing claims the following:

* Thompson was denied an opportunity to respond to the state's request for a new execution date. He's to be afforded 10 days to do so. The high court responded to the state's request within only eight days.

* Thompson has had a substantial change in his mental health. "He is insane and he is incompetent to be executed," Passino said.

Dr. Faye Sultan says Thompson lacks the mental capacity to understand the fact of the impending execution and the reason for it, Thompson's lawyer said.

Thompson requested medication to cope with hallucinations and depression.

Nevertheless, the filing also states that if the court declares Thompson competent for execution, it should acknowledge that competency is achieved through the use of medicine which was initiated against his will, which he says would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Over the years that this case has been considered, Passino says the state, at some points, misrepresented Thompson's condition as being faked; that Thompson was not mentally ill, but was malingering.

Then, the state sought a court-ordered conservatorship for Thompson to control his medical treatment, Passino asserts.