NASHVILLE – A federal judge refused Monday to block the execution of Paul Dennis Reid, finding him mentally ill but competent to drop his appeals.
The ruling was issued about 12 hours before the scheduled 1 a.m. CDT Tuesday execution of Reid, 45. After receiving seven death sentences in a 1997 string of robbery-murders in Nashville and Clarksville, Reid cleared the way for his death by lethal injection when he stopped appeals in one of the cases last month.
U.S. District Court Judge Todd Campbell ruled against a motion filed Friday by Reid’s sister, Janet Kirkpatrick of Hungerford, Texas, seeking to resume the federal appeals on the inmate’s behalf because he is mentally ill.
“The court finds, based on the bearing, demeanor and deportment of Reid and the entire record, that Reid has knowingly, intelligently, voluntarily and rationally decided to be executed rather than pursue further appeals and post-conviction options,” Campbell said in an eight-page written ruling.
There was no immediate indication whether Kirkpatrick would appeal the decision. Tennessee has executed only one other inmate in 43 years.
The judge handed down his ruling after hearing Monday from four witnesses, including Reid.
During 1 1/2 hours on the witness stand, Reid repeatedly told the judge he is not mentally ill and several times mentioned the victims, including once calling all seven by name. He said no one had pressured him to drop his legal challenges.
“Your honor, there are seven innocent people who have lost their lives, and I believe this court and all the courts should focus their attention on the surviving families,” Reid said. “Three juries in the Bible Belt state of Tennessee have already decided I am guilty. I understand the ramifications and I accept the verdict.”
While he did not acknowledge guilt, Reid repeated claims made in an Associated Press interview last week that the U.S. military is using technology to make his ears ring and control his behavior.
“The court finds Reid has a mental illness,” Campbell ruled, pointing to Reid’s testimony about a military conspiracy. “The controlling question, however, is whether Reid’s mental problems prevent him from choosing to be executed or pursuing his appeals and living.”
The judge said Reid demonstrated he was aware of his impending execution and understood that execution “is final and irreversible.”
“The court finds that Reid has the present capacity to understand his legal position and options and to make a rational choice among those options, and has done so,” Campbell wrote.
Attorneys for the state opposed Kirkpatrick’s petition, saying the Tennessee Supreme Court already ruled Reid has the right to waive his appeals and continue with his execution. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused last week to intervene in the case.
Reid repeatedly told Campbell his sister’s petition was “baseless and frivolous.” He said the only documentation that he has mental illness dates to the 1980s when he “malingered” at the advice of his attorney to avoid trial on charges in Texas.
In answer to questions from his sister’s attorney, Mark Olive, Reid said the military was making his ears ring during Monday’s hearing and agreed it was “torturous” and “excruciating.”
Before ruling, Campbell also heard from a psychologist who has examined Reid recently and believes he is incapable of making a decision about his appeals, Reid’s former defense attorney and his brother-in-law, who said Reid has been making claims that the government controls his mind since the mid-1980s.
Gov. Phil Bredesen, who could stop the execution if he gave Reid clemency, said during an appearance in Clarksville Monday that he had not received such a request from the inmate.
“I’ve been given a fair amount of material about this case, which I have read, so I feel I am prepared to address the issue if it should come up, but I genuinely don’t expect it to come up,” Bredesen said.
Jerry Jackson, the father of one 16-year-old victim, attended Monday’s hearing wearing one pin with a photo of his daughter, Sarah, and another with the photo of her boss, Steve Hampton, 25, who also died in the attack.
“I think it’s a joke. We’ve done been through all this at the other trial – same doctors and everything, just different attorneys,” Jackson said before Campbell’s decision was announced.
A Texas drifter who moved to Nashville to attempt a country music career, Reid was fired as a dishwasher from a Shoney’s restaurant on Feb. 15, 1997, for losing his temper and throwing a plate that hit another employee.
The next day, Jackson and Hampton were slain execution-style at a Captain D’s restaurant not far from the Shoney’s. Reid dropped his appeals in those murders, clearing the way for Tennessee to execute him.
In March 1997, Ronald Santiago, 27; Robert A. Sewell Jr., 23; and Andrea Brown, 17, were shot and killed in a midnight robbery at a McDonald’s a few miles from the Captain D’s. Reid was convicted and condemned for these murders in a second trial.
A third jury found Reid guilty of murdering Angela Holmes, 21, and Michelle Mace, 16, who were kidnapped in an April 1997 robbery at a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville. Their throats were slashed and their bodies were dumped at Dunbar Cave State Natural Area.
Reid was arrested in June 1997 and linked to the murders after attempting to kidnap and kill the Shoney’s manager who fired him.
