State v. Thompson

OPINION

DROWOTA, Chief Justice.

In this direct appeal Gregory Thompson seeks review of his conviction for first degree murder and the capital sentence imposed in a jury trial.

The essential facts of the case are not in dispute. On December 29,1984, Thompson and Joanne McNamara, a juvenile female, traveled by bus from Marietta, Georgia, to Shelbyville in Bedford County, Tennessee. They presented themselves as a married couple at the home of Willa Mae Odum, an acquaintance of McNamara’s family who allowed them to stay. Ms. Odum learned the two were not married and asked Thompson to leave, but he…