Death Row inmate receives stay from federal court


A Tennessee death row inmate scheduled for execution in August has gotten
a reprieve.

A federal court in Chattanooga granted the stay Tuesday for Gregory
Thompson, 42. That will give Judge Curtis Collier time for consider his
request for a hearing on his competency to be executed.

Thompson's public defender says Thompson is incompetent and mentally ill.

The state's attorney general's office declined to comment on the case.

Thompson was convicted in 1985 of abducting Brenda Blanton Lane from a
Wal-Mart parking lot in Shelbyville and killing her with a rusty butcher
knife.

(source: Associated Press)