Hearing set for Mississippi inmate who sought execution date

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge will hold a hearing next month to determine if a death row inmate truly wants to request an execution date and if the inmate is mentally competent to waive appeals. The state attorney’s office said Monday that the hearing for 46-year-old Blayde Nathaniel Grayson will be April 7 in George County Circuit Court. Grayson will be put under oath to say whether he wishes to go forward with his December request for an execution date. His attorneys later tried to withdraw that request. Grayson has been on death row since 1997. He was convicted of killing a woman during a home burglary.