Pervis Payne Case: Tennessee D.A. Abandons Death Penalty Pursuit
Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich announced on Thursday (November 18) that her office is dropping its pursuit of the death penalty against death row inmate Pervis Payne.
According to The Tennessean, Weirich made the announcement during a press conference and in a news release stating the reason for the decision is because a state expert exampined Payne and available records “and could not say that Payne's intellectual functioning is outside the range for intellectual disability," according to the release.
Both the U.S. and Tennessee supreme courts have ruled it to be unconstitutional to execute someone with an intellectual disability. In April, legislators in Tennessee created a law allowing death row inmates like Payne to appeal their sentences on grounds of intellectual disability.
Currently pending before the court is Payne’s appeal arguing he is intellectually disable and thus ineligible for the death penalty.
Rather than be executed, Payne will now serve two consecutive life sentences in prison for the 1987 murders of Charisse Christopher and her two-year-old daughter Lacie. Christopher’s 3-year-old son, Nicholas, survived multiple stab wounds in the attack that took place in her apartment.
During his 1988 trial, Payne maintained that he was innocent and discovered the crime scene after hearing calls for help through an open door of his apartment. He said he tried to help the victims but fled the crime scene after a police officer arrived, fearing he’d be seen as the prime suspect.
Payne was scheduled to appear at a Dec. 13 evidentiary hearing to consider whether he is intellectually disabled. That hearing will now no longer take place, according to The Tennessean.
