You might not know the name Pervis Payne today. But it’s a name that many people will learn in the weeks and months ahead, if we all help spread the word about his case.
That’s because the State of Tennessee is planning to go forward with his execution on December 3, in spite of his intellectual disability and serious concerns that he may be innocent.
Pervis’ story about what happened on June 27, 1987 has always been the same.1 He was waiting for his girlfriend at her apartment building in Millington, Tennessee, when he heard people in distress in the apartment across the hall. He entered the apartment and discovered Charisse Christopher and her two children had been brutally attacked.
Pervis Payne, age 7. Photo courtesy of the Payne family.
Racism, hidden evidence, and intellectual disability were a recipe for wrongful conviction in Pervis’ case. The prosecution’s argument was steeped in racist stereotypes — they said Pervis, who is Black, had been taking drugs and looking at a Playboy magazine, which then made him go looking for sex. They argued that he attacked and killed Charisse Christopher, a white woman, when she rejected him.
To this day, there is no evidence that Pervis used drugs that day, nor did he have a history of drug use. In fact, Pervis had no criminal history. And he did not know Charisse. Still, based on the story concocted by the prosecution and circumstantial evidence, a jury convicted him and sentenced him to death.
Pervis Payne in Riverbend Maximum Security institution in Tennessee. Photo courtesy of PervisPayne.Org.
There are a number of problems with Pervis’ case that should prevent the State of Tennessee from carrying out his execution. Evidence was withheld from Pervis’ defense team for decades. And some of that previously undisclosed evidence, including bloody items discovered in a part of the victims’ apartment that prosecutors didn’t believe to be part of the crime scene, has never been tested for DNA, which could prove Pervis’ innocence.
And, not least of all, because Pervis lives with an intellectual disability, his execution would violate the 8th Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
But, in spite of all that, an execution date has been set. And the clock is ticking to prevent it from happening.
Hale, Stephen, “Tennessee Set to Execute Intellectually Disabled Black Man in Killing of White Woman Even Though Innocence Questions Persist,” The Appeal, April 29, 2020. (Link)
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
