NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A federal judge has issued a stay of execution for Paul Dennis Reid, a death row inmate facing multiple death sentences for a series of slayings at fast food restaurants.
Reid, a Texas drifter who came to Nashville to be a country singer, was convicted of killing seven people in Nashville and Clarksville in 1997. Reid, 50, had been scheduled to be executed on Jan. 3.
U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell ruled late last week that the Reid execution should be delayed until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a Kentucky case on whether lethal injection procedures are cruel and unusual.
The nation's highest court is scheduled to hear arguments on the Kentucky case on Jan. 7, but it could be several months before it reaches a decision.
Attorney General Bob Cooper's spokeswoman Sharon Curtis-Flair said the state has no plans to appeal the stay.
Campbell said his order does not affect Reid's conviction or his death sentence.
Another Nashville federal judge earlier this month on similar grounds postponed the execution of Pervis Payne, who was convicted of fatally stabbing a Millington woman and her 2-year-old daughter in 1987.
MoreSource: WSMV Nashville
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