The Tennessee Supreme Court has rejected Paul Dennis Reid’s appeal of his convictions and death sentences for the 1997 stabbing murders of two young women he had kidnapped from a Clarksville ice cream parlor.
In an opinion written by Justice E. Riley Anderson, the court affirmed Reid’s convictions for premeditated first degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping and robbery and the two death sentences he received. Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, and Justices Janice M. Holder and William M. Barker concurred in the opinion. Reid also has been sentenced to death for five other murders in Davidson County committed in connection with the robberies of McDonald’s and Captain D’s restaurants.
Reid’s Clarksville victims, 21-year-old Angela Holmes and her co-worker, 16-year-old Michelle Mace, were forced from the Baskin-Robbins store where they worked and driven to Dunbar Cave State Natural Area in Montgomery County where they were murdered. Before kidnapping his victims, Reid stole $1,565 from the business, according to testimony at his trial.
“On the morning of April 24, 1997, the bodies of Angela Holmes and Michelle Mace were found …,” Anderson wrote. “… Both victims had suffered deep stab wounds to their necks, as well as stab wounds, cuts and abrasions to other parts of their bodies. Both had bled to death.”
Anderson wrote that the Supreme Court reviewed issues raised by Reid in his automatic direct appeal and agreed with the Court of Criminal Appeals that they were without merit or were harmless. The court also conducted legally mandated “comparative proportionality review” to determine whether the death sentences were “disproportionate to the punishment imposed on others convicted of the same crime”
“While no defendants or crimes are alike, a death sentence is disproportionate if a case is plainly lacking in circumstances consistent with those in cases where the death penalty has been imposed,” Anderson wrote. “… We conclude that the death sentence as applied to the defendant in this case was not excessive or disproportionate when compared to defendants in other cases.”
In his separate concurring/dissenting opinion, Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., agreed with the majority that Reid’s convictions should be upheld, but disagreed as to the sentence of death.
“I continue to adhere to my view that the comparative proportionality review protocol currently embraced by the majority is inadequate to shield defendants from the arbitrary and disproportionate imposition of the death penalty,” Birch wrote.
The court set an Oct. 5, 2005, execution date for Reid, who has state and federal appeals remaining. The legal process in death penalty cases is explained on the court system website at www.tsc.state.tn.us under “Information” and “Capital Case Information.” The website also contains legal filings in Reid’s cases.