BACKGROUND: "Payne is a Black man with intellectual disabilities from Millington who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987. Payne had no criminal history and has been unwavering in his assertion that he is innocent of this crime for more than 30 years. During his trial, prosecutors used racial stereotypes to portray him as a hypersexual, violent drug user who attacked a white woman, even though Payne had no history of drug use."
"Pervis Payne and the colour of capital punishment in the South," by Joia Erin Thornton, published by MLK50 (Justice Through Journalism) on August 26, 2020.
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STORY: "Expert to study disability claim on Tennessee death row inmate Pervis Payne," by AP (Fox 17) published on June 4, 2021.
GIST: A Tennessee judge has ruled that an expert hired by a state prosecutors’ office can conduct a mental evaluation of a Tennessee death row inmate who claims he is intellectually disabled and should not be executed.
Lawyers for Pervis Payne filed a petition in May asking a judge to declare that he cannot be executed in the killings of a mother and daughter in 1987 because he is intellectually disabled.
The move came one day after Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill making retroactive Tennessee’s law that prohibits the execution of the intellectually disabled.
The entire story can be read at:
https://fox17.com/news/local/expert-to-study-mental-disabilty-claim-of-death-row-inmate-pervis-payne-tennessee
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
