With an execution date set for December, the Payne Family discusses Pervis and their hopes for overturning his sentence now hinging on new DNA evidence Memphis Commercial Appeal
The DNA of an unknown male was discovered in new analysis of evidence from the Pervis Payne death penalty case, an attorney said in court Tuesday.
“There is male DNA on the handle (of the knife) that is unidentified as of now," an attorney for Payne, Kelley Henry, told the judge. "Male DNA that is not Pervis Payne.”
The DNA sample is not complete enough to run through a national database, she said.
The reported presence of an unknown man's DNA in the crime scene evidence comes as attorneys for Payne work to spare him from execution, and could influence what happens next.
Henry said she had only received the report from an independent lab late Monday night. She said that in addition to the unknown male DNA on the handle, Payne's DNA was found on a different point on the knife. She said that's consistent with his testimony in court that he touched the knife after the crime.
An attorney for the prosecution, Steve Jones, said in court that he hadn't had a chance to discuss the full report, which is over 100 pages long, with an expert, but he said other evidence does not clear Payne. "It certainly does not exculpate Payne on guilt or punishment."
Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan said she read the report and agreed. “Nothing exonerated Pervis Payne. Nothing.”
She said she was dismissing the petition. Outside the courtroom, Henry told reporters the judge's statement that she was dismissing the petition confused her, since the defense was asking for DNA testing, not a new trial, and that the judge had already granted the request for testing, leading to the new report.
Henry said the defense would now use the DNA report to prepare a request for clemency to Gov. Bill Lee. She also said the defense would review other legal remedies.
The Commercial Appeal has not had a chance to review the written DNA report, and at the moment, it's unclear what impact it might ultimately have on the long-running death penalty case, which has attracted attention from groups including the NAACP and Church of God in Christ.
Payne was convicted in the 1987 stabbing deaths of Millington woman Charisse Christopher, 28, and her 2-year-old daughter, Lacie.
Christopher's 3-year-old son, Nicholas, survived multiple stab wounds.
Judge Skahan ruled in September that DNA evidence could be tested for the first time in Payne's case, saying in her ruling that while it was likely that the state still would have prosecuted Payne regardless of any exculpatory DNA evidence, if a 3rd party's DNA were to appear across multiple items from the crime scene, "the more likely it would appear Mr. Payne did not commit those offenses."
The items tested included the knife used as the murder weapon, a tampon, bloodstained curtains, a pair of glasses and a bloodstained stuffed animal.
The evidence was tested at the Forensic Analytical Crime Laboratory, a private laboratory in California that conducts testing for both prosecution and defense.
Some of the most important items from the 1987 crime scene are no longer in custody, and exactly what has happened to them is not clear. Those items that have been lost or destroyed include fingernail clippings from Charisse Christopher that included two blood types under her nails, vaginal swabs from a rape kit and the victims' clothing.
Payne's attorneys have said that those missing items, particularly the fingernail scrapings, could have been most likely to prove Payne's innocence.
The Shelby County District Attorney's Office opposed the request for DNA testing, maintaining that regardless of what the DNA shows, the evidence to convict Payne of the crimes was overwhelming.
An officer saw him leaving the scene of the crime drenched in blood, and Payne admitted to being there. His baseball cap was found looped around the 2-year-old victim's arm, and his fingerprints were found on a beer can inside the apartment.
Payne, who has maintained his innocence for 33 years, said at trial that he discovered the gruesome crime scene after hearing calls for help through the open door of the apartment.
He said he bent down to try to help, getting blood on his clothes and pulling at the knife still lodged in Christopher's throat. When a white police officer arrived, Payne, who is Black, said he panicked and ran, fearing he would be seen as the prime suspect.
Payne's execution date was scheduled for Dec. 3, but Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee granted him a temporary reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reprieve lasts until April 9, 2021.
The reprieve also allows time for the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators to potentially pass legislation that would allow a defendant already sentenced to the death penalty and whose conviction is final to still bring a petition regarding a claim of intellectual disability.
Payne's attorneys have said he has an intellectual disability, but have been unable to litigate the claim in Tennessee due to procedural reasons.
Source: commercialappeal.com, Staff, January 19, 2021
🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us:
deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.
Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
