NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of John Patrick Henretta in the 1988 murder of Frances Rose Crabtree, a 32-year-old Bradley County thrift store employee.
According to a news release, Henretta's execution is set for Oct. 4, 2011.
The court's news release said that Henretta and Michael Goodhart, fugitives from Pennsylvania, stopped in Cleveland, Tenn., on Nov. 30, 1988 and decided to rob the Salvation Army Thrift Store after it closed.
Goodhart later told police the pair raped Crabtree and that Henretta stabbed her in the neck and left her to bleed to death on the storeroom floor. Henretta was indicted in 1997 and convicted of first degree premeditated murder in 2002, the release stated.
The Supreme Court unanimously rejected all of the issues raised in Henretta's automatic appeal and concluded that none of the issues presented entitled Henretta to relief.