Pervis Payne is facing execution - here’s what you need to know
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The Payne family: Carl, Bernice, Rolanda, Pervis, Tyrasha. Photo courtesy of the Payne family.
** 8 Things You Need to Know About Pervis Payne
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Pervis Payne has maintained his innocence for more than 30 years. Yet, despite having no prior criminal record and living with an intellectual disability, he is set to be executed in Tennessee on Dec. 3, 2020. Read this article ([link removed]) to learn about Pervis’ case and how you can help him and his family fight for justice.
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Emmett Till with his mother, Mamie Bradley, ca. 1950. To expose the horror of her 14 year-old's lynching, she ordered an open coffin funeral to show his tortured and mutilated body. Image: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy.
** From Emmett Till to Pervis Payne — Black Men in America Are Still Killed for Crimes They Didn’t Commit
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In 1955, a 14-year-old Black boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered after being accused of sexually harassing a white woman in a grocery store. The two white men who killed him were found not guilty by an all-white, all-male jury. Decades later, the woman admitted that she lied about Emmett harassing her. That same racism and inequality still persists in the US today — especially in our justice system. Black and brown men continue to be perceived as dangerous, violent, and hypersexual. Those same racist stereotypes were used to convict Pervis Payne of a crime he’s always said he didn’t commit.
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Pervis Payne in Riverbend Maximum Security institution in Tennessee. Photo courtesy of PervisPayne.Org.
** Pervis Payne's Attorneys Make Case for New DNA Testing
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Despite the availability of multiple pieces of untested evidence that could help prove Pervis Payne’s innocence, Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich announced that she opposes DNA testing in his case on July 30 and filed papers asking the court to deny him testing. Pervis’ legal team filed a reply brief in support of their petition for post-conviction DNA analysis and requested that the Shelby County Criminal Court order tests for more than a dozen pieces of crime scene evidence that have never been subjected to DNA analysis.
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Pervis Payne, age 7. Photo courtesy of the Payne family.
** Join Pervis Payne's fight for justice
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Pervis Payne is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Dec. 3, 2020, despite growing questions about his guilt. We’re working to stop that from happening — join in by adding your name to say you’re fighting for Pervis. ([link removed])
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