Reid petitions court to withdraw motion

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn Tuesday denied a request by convicted murderer Paul Dennis Reid seeking to withdraw a motion that, earlier this year, saved him from execution.

Blackburn issued an order saying that she received a handwritten letter Monday from Reid requesting that his petition for post-conviction relief be withdrawn. Reid signed the petition April 28, just hours before he was scheduled to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the murders of seven fast-food restaurant employees in Middle Tennessee. It was this petition, saying Reid wanted to continue with the appeals still allowed him by law, that halted Reid