Death Row inmate Reid ruled competent

By Kate Howard, THE TENNESSEAN

A Davidson County judge has ruled that Death Row inmate Paul Dennis Reid is competent to decide the course of his appeals.

Reid, who was convicted of killing seven people at fast-food restaurants in Nashville and Clarksville in 1997, had a hearing in May to determine whether he was competent to take action on his cases.

In the case of the deaths of two workers at a Donelson Captain D's restaurant, Reid filed a last-minute petition for a post-conviction hearing just before he was scheduled to be executed and later tried to withdraw the request.

In a second Nashville case, where three employees of a Donelson Pike McDonald's were slain, his sister filed a petition on his behalf, saying he wasn't competent to make decisions himself.

But Davidson County Judge Cheryl Blackburn ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Reid was incompetent.

That means the McDonald's case has no appeals pending in state court, and a post-conviction hearing will be scheduled in the Captain D's case, said Metro prosecutor Roger Moore. The decision could put the state back on track toward setting a new execution date for Reid.

"In the Captain D's case, we will be asking the (state) attorney general's office to do what they can to help us," Moore said. "Any further action, such as asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to set an execution date, would be set by the (state) attorney general's office."

Reid's mental competency has been in question for more than a decade, since he was first charged with the string of murders that terrorized Nashville.

He has claimed to believe that he's under surveillance by secret government agencies and that his trial lawyers should have found the tapes that would clear him of the murders. He has told psychiatrists that he believes his attorneys are actors, his trials fake and that he's serving an eight to 10-year sentence.

His execution has been stayed several times, most recently in 2006 when a federal judge intervened and requested the mental competency hearing. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to lift the stay.

Kelly Gleason, an attorney representing Reid for his appeals, said she hadn't read the decisions yet and couldn't comment.