A lawyer for a death row inmate who killed a Shelbyville woman has asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to postpone his execution until after federal court considerations are completed.

Michael J. Passiono of Nashville filed the request on Monday for Gregory Thompson who was convicted 20 years ago for the stabbing death of Brenda Blanton Lane. Thompson also abducted Lane to get her car so he and his girlfriend could drive to Georgia.

Passino and other attorneys have argued that Thompson should not be executed because of his mental condition. That and other procedural arguments have increased since the state Supreme Court set a second execution date for Thompson.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals hasn't finished considering Thompson's case, Passino wrote for Thompson in papers filed Monday.

"By letter of Oct. 26, [that] court directed the state to respond to Mr. Thompson's rehearing petition," the lawyer wrote. "Thus, the federal court is still reviewing the case and future federal proceedings are reasonably anticipated."

When the state Supreme Court set Feb. 7 as Thompson's execution date, there was still a process in federal court to be completed, Passino said.

And three weeks ago, when the state Supreme Court denied several requests for Thompson -- to stop the execution because of a change in his mental condition and hear an appeal to commute his sentence -- the state court also set Nov. 18 as a deadline for defense arguments.

That deadline of Friday next week should be postponed because federal proceedings are incomplete, Passino said.

Final defense arguments due on Nov. 18 should address Thompson's "Ford claim," the Supreme Court said. Stemming from case law, the claims seek to establish that the condemned inmate is not competent for execution because he doesn't understand or comprehend two facts of life and death in his case; that the state intends to take his life for his murder of another person.

Thompson's victim, a former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter, was abducted from what was the Wal-Mart parking lot at the Big Springs Shopping Center.

Thompson had been found competent for execution, but since then his attorneys have presented papers saying that Thompson's condition has changed and that he's no longer competent to be executed. In recent months, several lawyers who've spoken about the state's standard of competency for condemned prisoners have acknowledged that it is a low standard.