Tennessee Judge Vacated Death Sentences For Pervis Payne

A Judge in Tennessee has vacated the death sentence of Pervis Payne, a man who was set to be executed for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

Payne has spent more than three decades on death row for two murders he says he did not commit. His sentence was vacated due to the inmate’s intellectual disability.

He now faces two life sentences, but a decision must be made on whether he will serve them concurrently or consecutively.

Payne has always maintained his innocence for the 1987 murders of 28-year-old Charisse Christopher and her 2-year-old daughter, who were fatally stabbed in a brutal attack at their apartment. Payne was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to two death sentences.  He was also convicted of assault with intent to commit the first-degree murder of Christopher’s 3-year-old son, who survived.

In 2002, the US Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute someone with an intellectual disability.

Payne’s attorney argued that he had a functional IQ of 68 but was unable to make his case in Tennessee until Gov. Bill Lee signed new legislation this year that changed the state’s definition of an intellectual disability and established a procedure for death row inmates claiming to have a disability to appeal their sentences.