Tennessee's death row pastor has hope despite his circumstances

Kevin Burns is the pastor of the Church of Life, a congregation for the men on Tennessee's death row.

Burns was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to death, but he maintains he was at the scene but did not kill.

Every day, Kevin Burns says it is the best day of his life.

He preaches with urgency. He trusts God in the face of misfortune. He tells his congregation to have faith. No one, no matter their past, is beyond God’s love, he says.

During a two-hour service, he sings hymns with his church. He shares communion. From his well-worn King James Version of the Bible he reads aloud verse after verse.

Then he goes back to his cell.

From Unit 2 of Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, home to Tennessee’s death row, Burns leads the Church of Life. He believes it is the nation’s only church serving and led by prisoners sentenced to be executed.

Burns, 55, also co-authored a book with Franklin Community Church pastor and activist Kevin Riggs. Burns is an associate pastor at the church, where he occasionally preaches by prison phone.

"I'm sitting in Unit 2 of Tennessee, death row, but God's glory is upon me," Burns told the free-world congregation at Franklin Community Church during his sermon on March 9. "If he can do it for me, he can do it for you."

A Memphis jury in 1995 convicted Burns of two counts of felony murder related to the shooting deaths of 20-year-old Tracey Johnson and 17-year-old Damond Dawson. The jury imposed the death penalty for Dawson's killing. Felony murder, a type of murder charge, can apply to someone who participated in a serious crime that ended in death, even if they did not kill anyone.

There is no definitive evidence of who shot Dawson or Johnson. Burns admits he was with the group of men at the scene, but he has always said he did not shoot anyone.

Burns has exhausted all of his legal appeals, putting him on a short list of people the state may execute. The Tennessee Supreme Court has not yet set an execution date for Burns.

He has hope he will be released one day.

“I'm not in denial of what's going on,” Burns said in a phone interview, two weeks after the Tennessee Attorney General's office requested an execution date be set for Burns. “I just choose to focus on my purpose for being here, what God wants out of me: to remain faithful and to continue to minister and encourage my brothers and myself.”

‘I’m praying for you’

Riggs first walked through the series of locked doors and caged walkways to death row in 2014. He didn't know anyone there yet or what to expect.

“There was that apprehension,” he said. “If you hear somebody's going to death row, you automatically have these images of what that's going to be like. … We've got this myth that the worst of the worst are on death row.”

He reached the room where a group of men sentenced to death were holding a prayer meeting. He was introduced to them as a senior pastor.

Burns stood up and opened his arms. He told Riggs, “I’ve been praying for you,” Riggs remembers.

Riggs started crying.

A small town and a new car

Burns, 55, was raised in West Memphis, Arkansas, a small, working-class town across the Mississippi River from Memphis. In his and Riggs' book, "Today! The Best Day of My Life,” Burns says he was one of 20 children between both his parents. Some judges described his childhood home as "troubled" or "dysfunctional," but Burns says he had a happy, normal upbringing.

His father, the Rev. Obra Carter, at times pastored a church, Burns says in the book. He says during his childhood, he attended church weekly and went to revivals and vacation Bible schools.

He graduated from high school in 1987 then started working at Shoney’s, he says in the book.

When he was 19, he bought a new car. It was a light blue 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham with Cragar rims. It was his pride and joy.

“The car made me a somebody, or so I thought,” Burns says in his book.

Three Sundays after he bought the car, he skipped church to wash and wax it. He had started to rebel, or “backslide," Burns says.

"I was young and could not handle the attention," Burns says in the book. "My focus became me and was no longer God."

A deadly confrontation

April 20, 1992, was Burns’ 23rd birthday. Burns described the day in his book. He says he expected to go to a studio to record music with a rap group he was in. A friend picked him up around noon.

Instead, a group of six men including Burns, his friends and others he did not know, drove to Memphis. Unbeknownst to Burns, he says, they were going to confront someone one of them had been fighting with. They parked their cars and got out.

Burns says he was handed a gun. He says in the book deciding not to leave was the worst decision he ever made.

Burns' group confronted a group of four young men sitting in a car. Shots were fired. Two men in that car, Dawson and Johnson, died. Another was severely injured. Dawson, 17, was the youngest of three children. Johnson, 20, left behind a 4-month-old daughter.

Summarizing the prosecution of the case when it reached the U.S. Supreme Court years later, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote “no definitive narrative emerged regarding who had shot the victims.” The high court declined to take up Burns' case.

Burns left for Chicago after the shooting. He says in his book he panicked, thinking only to "get out of West Memphis and buy myself some time to get myself together," noting previous rough-ups with local police. He said it "wasn't the best decision I could have made." The FBI arrested him there that June.

Prosecutors charged three of the six men. Juries convicted the other two men, Derrick Garrin and Carlito Adams, of felony murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Both have since been granted parole. Adams was sent back to prison but is scheduled for release in April.

Jonnie Dawson, the victim's mother, testified Dawson was a good son and skilled in athletics. The neighborhood grew more fearful and distrusting after the killings, she said, and she no longer knew what it was like to be happy. The Tennessean attempted to reach Jonnie Dawson for this story.

Burns in his book apologized to the victims' families, whom he says he cannot write to because of prison policy, while maintaining he did not shoot the victims.

"All I can do is hope they read this book and realize how sorry I am for what happened," Burns says in the book.

Conflicting eyewitness testimony leads to a death sentence

A Memphis jury in 1995 convicted Burns of two counts of felony murder and attempted first-degree murder.

During sentencing, the state called two witnesses to prove Burns killed Dawson.

One was a surviving shooting victim. He identified Burns as Dawson's only shooter. In an earlier trial, however, he said someone else, a "big man in glasses," shot Dawson and did not mention Burns. Burns is 5-foot-7.

Burns' attorneys did not impeach the survivor with his prior testimony, despite being aware of it.

The other eyewitness, a neighbor, testified both shooters had a Jheri curl. On cross examination, she said Burns was the shooter based on his hairstyle at trial.

Burns' attorneys did not call witnesses to testify that Burns did not have enough hair to wear a Jheri curl at the time of the crime, while others in the group did.

Burns' attorneys also failed to observe that police statements from members of his group indicated that another man, not Burns, initially approached the vehicle, Sotomayor noted.

Burns was sentenced to death.

He walked into Riverbend Maximum Security Institution on Nov. 29, 1995. By then, he said, he had already devoted his life to Christianity, and he said he now sees ministering to those who have also been sentenced to die as God's mission for him.

Ordination on death row

After Riggs’ first visit to death row, he returned regularly and became friends with Burns, who was the associate chaplain of Unit 2. Together they made weekly visits to the cells of all fifty or so men on death row, Riggs said.

After finishing their rounds one Friday, Burns told Riggs he appreciated him and that the men on death row saw him as their preacher.

Riggs stopped him.

“The only reason some of these guys talk to me is because of you,” Riggs remembers telling Burns. “You’re the pastor."

They hugged, Riggs said. Driving home, Riggs felt a call to ordain Burns. He asked his church’s elders for guidance. They agreed but insisted Burns needed to earn the honor.

After a lengthy process including rounds of questioning on Burns' faith and theology, Riggs ordained Burns in 2018 at a ceremony in Riverbend attended by numerous members of Burns’ family. The church was started not long after.

‘Nothing short of a miracle’

Each Thursday from 5:30-7:30 p.m., the Church of Life meets in an auxiliary building near Unit 2, Burns said. Of the 45 men on Tennessee’s death row, between five and 10 regularly attend, Burns said. Volunteers from Franklin Community Church also attend, but Burns said the men in Unit 2 feel it is important they lead.

“We've always had volunteers come in and minister to us, but guys … were like, ‘These people don't understand us,'" Burns said. "'They don't know what it's like being here.’”

Burns has also recorded prayers played for hundreds of people at the Christian Community Development Association’s annual conference and has prepared messages published in sermon guides, Riggs said.

When the book was published in 2024, Burns called in to launch events, Riggs said. During those calls, he spoke with family members he hadn't spoken with in years.

“What he’s been able to do from the confines of Unit 2 is really nothing short of a miracle,” Riggs said.

Brad Davis, a staff member at Franklin Community Church who calls Burns multiple times a week, seemed to recognize that some may see Burns' actions as a way to garner sympathy with the governor or others in power. Davis said that idea goes away after speaking with Burns for 5 minutes.

"There's no way he's not genuine about this," Davis said.

Eric Boucher, an elder at the church, added, "when he says, 'today is the best day of my life,' he means it."

Burns said his congregation was created in the image of God. He encouraged people to pray for both those on death row, and the victims and their families.

'I have no Plan B'

While Burns, Riggs and others maintain Burns is innocent, courts have repeatedly upheld his conviction and sentence.

Riggs, a death penalty opponent, said the legal system is too flawed to carry out this irreversible sentence. A 2014 study out of Stanford University estimated that at least 4% of people awaiting execution are innocent.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to decline to review Burns' case. Sotomayor, writing for the dissent, said there was a "very robust possibility" Burns did not kill Dawson. Burns' attorney Richard Tennent, following the decision, said "our modern court system is not designed to address matters of mercy and redemption, or even to correct errors of law."

The power to grant Burns clemency lies with the governor.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office requested execution dates for Burns and four others in February. Burns said he was not surprised.

“I really hate that it has come down to this,” he said. “But I knew it was going to happen.”

Since Burns' conversation with The Tennessean in February, the Tennessee Supreme Court has set execution dates for four people: Byron Lewis Black, Donald Ray Middlebrooks, Harold Wayne Nichols and Oscar Franklin Smith.

Thirteen people have been executed while Burns has been on death row. For some, Burns was one of the last people they spoke to before their death, Riggs said. Those conversations are painful.

“Oh man,” Burns said. “It’s grueling.”

Burns said he has always believed he will eventually be taken off death row. He says in his book there have been times that tried his faith but that he has “always found God faithful.”

“The truth is I have no plan B,” Burns writes. “This is it for me. God is all I’ve got. Either God saves me, or I am a dead man.”

Source: tennessean.com, Evan Mealins, March 24, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde