The execution for convicted killer Paul Dennis Reid is still on hold, pending a ruling from the sixth circuit court of appeals. The state also filed a motion to lift the stay with the U-S Supreme Court late this afternoon.
Reid’s lawyers won a stay of execution from the federal court of appeals last night based on questions of Reid’s competency. The state wants the court to allow the execution to go forward without a competency hearing.
Reid’s sister, Linda Martiniano, has been filing appeals on Reid’s behalf since he refuses to do so. One of Reid’s lawyers, Kelly Gleason, says Reid is delusional, and was even found incompetent to stand trial for robbery in Texas in the late 1970s.
“Since 1985, every word, every action, every word he sees is recorded by the military government through using scientific technology. And so he believes that there are computer panels somewhere where people are reviewing videotapes of not only everything, like you and I would see Paul in a room or something, but he also thinks they can see through his eyes and record everything he sees as well.”
Reid was convicted of killing 7 people in fast food restaurants in Nashville and Clarksville in 1997.