[Johnny Wadd]

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — Paul Dennis Reid Jr., on death row for seven Middle Tennessee murders including two in Clarksville, died Friday in a hospital bed at age 55.

He was pronounced dead at 5:55 p.m. at Metro General Hospital in Nashville, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. The cause of death was not provided.

Connie Black, the mother of Michelle Mace, murdered in 1997 at the Clarksville Baskin-Robbins, said there was no relief in knowing that Reid was dead. “Absolutely not,” she said.

“If you think about it, he’s in a hospital surrounded by family and has a peaceful death,” Black said. “It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.

“He just died a normal death like everyone else.”

There was no confirmation on whether Reid’s family was present when he died.

Black and other families of the victims heard a rumor last weekend that Reid had been hospitalized in critical condition.

Department of Corrections officials said Monday they could not confirm to the media or the victims’ families whether Reid was hospitalized or even ill because of federal laws that protect medical privacy, including for prison inmates.

Friday night, after again hearing the news first from reporters, Black was furious.

“They assured us that if he were to die, they would notify the families first.

“I heard it like everybody else,” Black said at 7:55 p.m., an hour after TDOC sent a media notification, and about two hours after the news broke.

“I’m still waiting for the phone call,” she said.

String of murders

Reid killed seven people in a 1997 murder spree in Clarksville and Nashville fast food restaurants:

• On Feb. 16, 1997, Reid murdered Sarah Jackson, 16, and Steve Hampton, 25, two workers at the Donelson Captain D’s.

• On March 23, 1997, Reid murdered Andrea Brown, 17, Ronald Santiago, 27, and Robert Sewell Jr., 23, while robbing a McDonald’s in Hermitage. He also stabbed Jose Antonio Ramirez Gonzalez 17 times.

• On April 23, 1997, Reid kidnapped Angela Holmes, 21, and Michelle Mace, 16, from the Baskin-Robbins on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard in Clarksville. Their throats were slashed and their bodies were left at Dunbar Cave State Natural Area.

He was sentenced to death for the Captain D’s murders in April 1999, then in September the same year he got two death sentences for the Clarksville Baskin-Robbins murders. In May 2000, he was sentenced to death for the three McDonald’s murders.

String of appeals

Reid’s legal cases had been dragging through the courts for over a decade, despite his own attempts starting 10 years ago to put an end to his appeals. His executions were scheduled and then stayed several times.

Most recently, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in January that Reid’s family and legal advocates could not continue to appeal his convictions against his wishes.

The court released a unanimous opinion saying that Reid, while undeniably brain damaged, was not proven to be mentally incompetent to make his own legal decisions.

Reid had said he wanted to accept the death sentence, but his sister and attorneys said he lacked the mental competency to make those decisions and they wanted to continue his appeals on his behalf.

Courts in Nashville and Clarksville conducted hearings on his competency in 2008. Both concluded his advocates failed to prove his mental incompetency.

Death row interview

Ten years ago, as he was preparing for a scheduled, and then postponed, April 29, 2003, execution, Reid told The Leaf-Chronicle he was innocent but would no longer fight for appeals.

Why? Because he could no longer stand the government controlling his mind.

“Since 1985, the U.S. government military has been using scientific technology on my body,” Reid said from an interview room at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

“I don’t have the skill or knowledge to articulate this, but they have the scientific technology where they cause your ears to ring, to cause your mind to go from extreme to extreme, to cause you to become unconscious.”

Reid said he had “sincere, profound empathy” for the victims’ families. “I would say to the victims’ families that if I have violated you or offended you in any manner, I plead for your forgiveness.

“Likewise, to the state of Tennessee, if you have violated me or offended me or caused a miscarriage of justice, I, too, also forgive the state of Tennessee and all Tennesseans.”

When asked how he wanted to be remembered, Reid hesitated. “I have not got that far in thought,” he said.

Fucking nasty coward

[pbaj12]

Should have just executed him when they had the chance.

I always think it's funny when people saying executing someone is inhumane but in the same sentence say they hope the person suffers in prison till they die.

[Pyramid_Head]

This is why death row is a joke aswell as the justice system. They let him live until he died painless. He should have had his throat slit.

[Faline]

One less mouth to feed.

[Drusilla]

I don't get it.Guy WANTED to die. Why was his decision to not appeal ignored? I guess 'rights' only mean 'what we think is best for you'. What a waste of taxpayer money.

[kellyhound]

good, fuck him.

5 of the 7 victims.

Sarah Jackson, 16 [2/16/1997] Captain D’s

Steve Hampton, 25 [2/16/1997] Captain D’s

Andrea Brown, 17 [3/23/1997] McDonald’s Ronald Santiago

Robert A. Sewell, Jr, 23 [3/23/1997] McDonald’s

Michelle Mace, 16 [4/23/1997] Baskin-Robbins

[el_topo]

Insane, I live by that Captain D's

[dirty ike]

All those innocent lives lost violently and that shit heap dies in a hospital bed after we fed and housed him for years---please put me in charge of executions , I have so many weapons to experiment with and so many creative ideas.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Drusilla ↗

I don't get it.Guy WANTED to die. Why was his decision to not appeal ignored? I guess 'rights' only mean 'what we think is best for you'. What a waste of taxpayer money.

Probably had a lawyer.

They granted Aileen Wournos her request of no appeals.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

good, fuck him.

I never heard of him. He looks a little off in the head, to put it nicely.