Sept. 29 TENNESSEE: TCASK still opposes Thompson execution Death penalty opponents are challenging the scheduled execution of a man convicted for the death of a former Shelbyville Times-Gazette reporter who was the niece of the police chief here at the time of the murder. The Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killings on Wednesday quoted the state Attorney General as saying in 2001 that Gregory Thompson is incapable of making rational decisions, so a conservator was needed for the man on death row. Thompson was convicted of using a butcher knife in 1985 to stab Brenda Blanton Lane to death in Coffee County after abducting her from the Big Springs Shopping Center parking lot across Lane Parkway from the police and sheriff's departments. He's confessed to doing so to get her car so he and his girlfriend could drive to Georgia. "According to the attorney general and the state's own expert, Thompson is mentally ill," said Randy Tatel, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. "People who are mentally ill should not be subject to execution." The death penalty opponents' announcement did not surprise Barbara Brown of the Longview Community, sister of the slain reporter. "I fully expected them to bring up the competency issue again, Brown said this morning, calling it "irrelevant and really rather ridiculous." Brown and at least one of the lawmen who brought Thompson back from Georgia have said they don't believe Thompson was mentally ill at the time of the crime. Brown went a step further this morning. "As I understand it, all he has to understand is that he knows he's going to be executed and why," Brown said. "I believe he knows that and has demonstrated that he understands." Brown bases her belief on a 2004 Times-Gazette report by Dea Demonbren who quoted Thompson from a prison interview, and on information Brown received from the Victims Liaison Office of the state Attorney General's office. Sharon Curtis-Flair, spokeswoman for Attorney General Paul Summers, this morning said the office wouldn't have anything to say about the death penalty opponents' criticism of Summers. "We're going to argue the case in court," Curtis-Flair said. "This has been reviewed by the courts which have upheld it." The U.S. Supreme Court overruled a lower federal court judge's decision that an Aug. 19, 2004, execution date should be stopped because an expert witness' testimony wasn't properly documented. Thompson is now scheduled by the state Supreme Court to be executed on Feb. 7, 2006. That and the death penalty opponents' announcement yesterday imply there may be additional pleadings in Thompson's case. "If there is any further argument, it will take place in the courts," Curtis-Flair said. "That's all we'll have to say." "There is no doubt that the death of 28-year-old Brenda Blanton Lane was a terrible tragedy," Tatel said. "However, our individual and collective failure to adequately acknowledge, understand and respond to the often-brutal tragedy of mental illness -- particularly severe mental illness such as Thompson suffers -- is a crime we barely comprehend." Tatel said the standard for incompetence is different from diagnoses of even the most severe mental illness. Tatel quoted now-former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Drowota as saying it's been shown that Thompson is mentally ill, but documents to that effect, don't raise the issue of competency. Schizophrenia prevents Thompson from grasping the fact that the state is about to execute him, the anti execution group leader said. He says Thompson hears voices, is often suicidal, has eaten his own feces and does not appreciate that Lane is dead or that he's about to be executed. (source: Shelbyville Times-Gazette) OHIO: State To Unveil Prison Riot Memorial Darrold Clark still works as a guard at the southern Ohio prison where he could have died 12 years ago. "I still think about going to work at another facility, maybe move up or relocate, but Lucasville's in my blood," said Clark, now a captain at the prison. "I'll either die here or retire from here, 1 of the 2." The state on Thursday planned to unveil a new memorial to the 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The uprising left 10 dead, cost the state millions in compensation and put 5 inmates on death row. The state already has a small memorial in front of the Lucasville prison, about 90 miles south of Columbus. The new memorial will be in a small employee recognition park at the Orient Correctional Complex south of Columbus, and honors the riot's impact on the entire Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. "Everything changed after Lucasville for this agency," said department director Reginald Wilkinson. "Despite the tragedy that happened there, it actually was a spark to a new era in Ohio corrections, and this memorial was partly a tribute to what is now the future," he said. The agency has become more professional, its policies and procedures have been improved and its security measures are more advanced, Wilkinson said. 8 new prisons opened after the riot, helping ease overcrowding, though the state has since closed 2 facilities to save money. Lawmakers banned some weightlifting equipment in prisons after it was found that inmates used weights to smash through stairwell walls. The state also moved death row from Lucasville to the Mansfield Correctional Institution, and transferred its most dangerous inmates to the super-maximum security prison in Youngstown. Ohio spent $42 million on renovations and upgrades to Lucasville, about $9 million more than it cost to build the facility in 1972. A 1997 settlement provided about $2.4 million to the estates of the 9 inmates who died in the riot. Plans were made for the new memorial at the riot's 10-year anniversary and donations raised from employees to cover the $60,000 cost. The memorial consists of a pair of walls intersecting at an angle, topped with a prism and centered on a brick walk. Clark, 35, had worked for the prison system just less than a year when he was seized by inmates at the beginning of the 11-day riot. There was tension inside the prison in the days leading up to the riot because some Muslim inmates claimed planned tuberculosis inoculations went against their religious beliefs. The only guard killed, Robert Vallandingham, was strangled on April 15, 1993, by two inmates under orders from Carlos Sanders, now on death row for the crime, according to court records. Clark was released on the 5th day of the siege in exchange for a radio broadcast of prisoners' demands. Clark returned to Lucasville in 1994 to ensure he had insurance for his daughter, Olivia, who had cerebral palsy. She has since died. He also underwent 2 heart surgeries caused by the stress of his ordeal. Clark grew up in New Boston where his father was a police officer and is now police chief. He said he stays at the Lucasville prison because he knows and trusts his fellow guards, many of whom were there during the riot. He hopes the memorial will make people think about what it means to be a prison guard. "It pays the bills. You've got a great foundation for your family, but you've got to realize the seriousness of the business," Clark said. "The best facility in the state can erupt at any given time." (source: Ohio News) ARKANSAS----new death sentence Man sentenced to die for killing 2 women Mickey David Thomas, accused of killing 2 women during a robbery at a DeQueen, Ark., business, has been convicted and sentenced to die to the crime. Thomas, 31, of Broken Bow, Okla., is condemned to die for the murders of Mona Lee Shelton, 46, and Donna Marie Cary, 45. Shelton was beaten and then shot inside the office of Cornerstone Monument Co. Carey was killed execution style after she apparently walked in on the attack, prosecutors said. The murders were discovered by a package delivery man, who gave a description of a man leaving the business. That was a major break in the case, attorneys said. Thomas also is charged with killing Geraldine Jones of Broken Bow 2 days before to the DeQueen murders. He probably won't be tried for that crime because of the death sentence, prosecutors said. The trial was moved to nearby Pike County because of publicity surrounding the case in DeQueen. (source: KTBS News)
