Reid v. State, CCA No. M2006-01294-CCA-R3-PC (Tenn. Crim. App. 6/26/2006)
| Decision Date | 26 June 2006 |
| Docket Number | CCA No. M2006-01294-CCA-R3-PC. |
| Parties | PAUL DENNIS REID, JR., by and through Linda Martiniano, Petitioner, STATE OF TENNESSEE, Respondent. |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from the Montgomery County Circuit Court; Trial Court No. 38887.
Nicholas D. Hare, Assistant Post-Conviction Defender, Nashville, Tennessee.
RENEWED MOTION FOR STAY OF EXECUTION PENDING T.R.A.P. 3 APPEAL OF RIGHT OF DISMISSAL OF POST-CONVICTION PETITION, AND EXPEDITED APPEAL
Pursuant to the Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court, Rule 28, Section 10(C), Linda Martiniano, next friend for Paul Dennis Reid, Jr., renews her motion for this Court to stay Mr. Reid's execution, schedule full briefing and argument on this T.R.A.P. 3 appeal of right1, and reverse the lower court's ruling dismissing the filed post-conviction petition. An expedited hearing on this matter is requested.
In support of this motion, the next friend herein incorporates all previous pleadings in this Court under this case number.
This Court has jurisdiction to enter a stay pending the appeal of right, as the Tennessee Supreme Court made clear in an Order issued today. This Court previously denied the Motion for Stay filed on June 22, 2006, stating that "this Court is without authority to grant a stay of the execution date set by the supreme court." Order, June 23, 2006.
This afternoon, June 26, 2006, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied the next friend's motion for a stay of execution filed in that Court on June 22, 2006. See attached Order in No. M2001-02753-SC-DDT-DD and No. M2006-01294-SC-28S-PD. The Supreme Court recognized that "an appeal in this matter is currently pending in the Court of Criminal Appeals." Further, the Supreme Court noted that an opinion, also issued today, in Paul Dennis Reid, Jr. v. State, No. M2005-00260-SC-S09-PD (Tenn. June 26, 2006) holds that the standard for mental incompetence adopted in State v. Nix, 40 S.W.3 459 (Tenn. 2001) applies in post-conviction proceedings.
Mr. Reid is a severely psychotic man, with a chronic, degenerative disease which has caused a deteriorating mental state, and the courts of the State of Tennessee have not conducted a hearing on his current competency since April 2000. The State concedes that Mr. Reid has a mental illness that results in persistent delusions about government controlling his life and the legal process. Given that the State agrees that his psychotic illness affects these aspects of his legal and personal affairs, that alone should establish a sufficient prima facie case to justify a competency inquiry. Nonetheless, the next friend proffered a tremendous amount of proof that far exceed a prima facie showing.
The Circuit Court abused its discretion by finding Appellant had not made a prima facie case that Mr. Reid is incompetent under the Nix standard. This Court reviews a motion for stay of execution under these circumstances under the "abuse of discretion" standard, see Tenn. Sct. R. 28, Section 10(c). It is an abuse of discretion to kill a brain-damaged, psychotic man while an appeal regarding his competency is pending.
On the merits of the appeal2, this Court must consider de novo the overwhelming prima facie case made before the Circuit Court that Mr. Reid is incompetent under the Nix standard due to the failure of that Court to conduct an evidentiary hearing.3 The Court's standard of review on whether the next friend established a prima facie case is de novo, since the lower court conducted no evidentiary hearing. See, e.g., Thompson v. State, 134 S.W.3d 168, 177 (Tenn. 2004):
[T]his Court will review de novo the trial court's determination that Thompson failed to establish a genuine issue regarding his present competency. The trial court's decision at the threshold showing stage generally involves no factual determinations entitled to deferential review. Unlike Coe, the trial court in this case did not observe witnesses and make credibility determinations. Indeed, the trial court in this case reviewed affidavits and other written submissions before determining that Thompson had failed to establish a genuine issue as to his present competency to be executed. Therefore, much like the standard of review applied when reviewing a lower court decision granting summary judgment, the appropriate standard of review in this case is de novo, with no presumption of correctness afforded the trial court's decision.
[] Dr. Woods, who the Court found to have "impressive credentials" tendered an affidavit regarding Mr. Reid's current mental state, which results from a left t emporal lobe dysfunction, a neurological disorder which has produced in Mr Reid a chronic, schizophrenia-like psychosis which has severely impaired his ability to weigh, deliberate, inform and cooperate.
[] Dr. Woods opined that Mr. Reid is presently incompetent, either under Rees v. Peyton, 384 U.S. 312, 314, 86 S.Ct. 1505, 1506, 16 L.Ed.2d 583 (1966) or State v. Nix, 40 S.W.3d 459 (Tenn. 2001).
[] Mr. Reid's delusion, that he has been under the control of a government-directed surveillance and influence, impels, invades, and guides his daily activities as well as decision-making processes.
[] Mr. Reid currently has persecutory, paranoid delusions that "the military government" is using "scientific technology" to torture him.
[] Mr. Reid sees execution as the only means of ending the torment due to failed promises in the past that the "scientific technology" will be "turned off."
[] Mr. Reid currently is suffering from perceptual and memory impairments which render him unable to reliably relate events of his trial.
[] Mr. Reid's delusional beliefs that current counsel are members of the conspiracy against him preclude rational communication regarding his legal options and thus he is unable to perceive and understand his legal right and liabilities in any meaningful sense.
[] Mr. Reid's beliefs that scientific technology is employed in a continuous basis upon his mind and person also interfere with his ability to manage his personal affairs. For example, he believes that scientific technology controls and "coaches" correctional officers, other inmates, and literally everyone with whom he comes into contact.
[] Mr. Reid believes that the military government controls his ability to receive mail, receive gifts from others, and obtain items from the commissary.
[] Mr. Reid experiences certain events as "repeats" which have occurred previously when they have not.4
Kelly A. Gleason (attorney in Reid's Davidson County post-conviction and appeal)
[] Gleason's affidavit is forty-two pages and in detail describes her observations and interactions with Mr. Reid in person and by telephone by date.
[] During the entire time Gleason has represented Reid, his delusional beliefs have been persistent and have pervaded his thinking about all aspects of his life.
[] Reid's delusional beliefs have caused him to either refuse to discuss legal issues with Gleason, as he believes it is futile, or to discuss only the specific delusional beliefs he holds about his trial attorneys, the trial judges, the jurors, witnesses, courtroom personnel, state and federal appellate courts, the media, the governor, the president, congress, Department of Correction personnel — literally everyone.
[] Reid told Gleason that he knew she was working with the military government and that he could not believe a single word she said or anything she wrote.
[] Reid refused to make a list of what he felt that his trial attorneys did wrong or did not do since he felt there was no point because the trial attorneys and everyone at the trial was coached.
[] Reid said he had been framed and that he couldn't have done this crime because he was aware that the military intelligence was always taping him and watching his every move. Reid would not have committed the crimes since he knew that he would be taped if he did so and the military intelligence could use the tapes to prove it.
[] Reid believes the military intelligence is causing ringing in his ears and prickly sensations on his skin.
[] Reid believes he met Gleason a year before they actually met.
[] Reid stated that Gleason is not a lawyer and asserted that had no way of knowing if she was since everything is controlled by the government military.
[] Reid has heart pains, and pains in his left arm, but refuses to call the doctor, since he believes the pain is the product of the "scientific technology people."
[] Reid believes the "military government" plants recurring dreams in his mind of his father and sister Janet being killed. He believes the military government killed his father, who died of cancer in 1997, with scientific technology.
[] Reid believes that people speak to him in "cryptic language" which is intended for him to hear.
[] When meeting with counsel, Reid has brought papers with him on which he had written "REPEAT" and another with "BE CIRCUMSPECT, ATTORNEY'S ARE COACHED TO REPEAT." He stated that this was a reminder to himself not to go into "irrelevant" matters such as his trial.
[] Reid stated that the scientific technology runs the internet letter through his head constantly; he hears it read to him. They will not let him sleep; they cause terrible ringing in his ears.
[] Reid described how scientific technology can radiate his body and then use some kind of magnetic tapes to record the activity going on in his brain.
[] Reid told Gleason that if Gleason would ask whoever coaches her, tells her what to say and do and to repeat herself, that would provide a lead and draw Gleason back "to a nucleus, to a core, to a hub of people" that are using scientific technology against Reid.
[] Reid said "they" coached Judge Blackburn what to say during the trial and Reid knows that because there's no way that Judge Blackburn could have known to...
To continue reading
Request your trial