DNA Exonerates Georgia Man Who Had Waived His Appeals to Avoid Wrongful Execution

When Dennis Perry stood with his defense team on the steps of the Brunswick, Georgia cour­t­house (pic­tured) after a tri­al judge dis­missed all charges against him, he was a free man, exon­er­at­ed of the racial­ly moti­vat­ed mur­ders of a dea­con and his wife in a local Black church in 1985. His case was one of at least four death-penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions involv­ing mis­con­duct by Brunswick Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney John B. Johnson III. And it was the lat­est of more than 30 exon­er­a­tions across the coun­try since January 2019 in which police or pros­e­cu­tors sought the death penal­ty against inno­cent defen­dants or threat­ened defen­dants or wit­ness­es with the death penal­ty unless they false­ly con­fessed or pro­vid­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny against others.

On July 19, 2021, Glynn County Superior Court Chief Judge Stephen G. Scarlett Sr. grant­ed a pros­e­cu­tion motion to dis­miss the charges against Perry. Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins, who took office in January, said “[N]ew evi­dence indi­cates that some­one else mur­dered Harold and Thelma Swain.”

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution inves­ti­ga­tion in 2020 showed that Erik Sparre, an alleged white suprema­cist who was an ear­ly sus­pect in the case, had fab­ri­cat­ed his ali­bi and had report­ed­ly bragged that he had ​“killed two ni****rs.” New DNA test­ing obtained by Perry’s lawyers from the Georgia Innocence Project and the law firm King & Spalding linked Sparre to blonde hairs found in the frames of a pair of glass­es found at the scene of the mur­der. Perry’s lawyers also showed that Johnson had with­held evi­dence from the defense that the key pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness who claimed to have heard Perry plan the mur­ders had been paid $12,000 in reward mon­ey for her testimony.

Even after the DNA evi­dence point­ed to Sparre, for­mer DA Jackie Johnson — whom Higgins defeat­ed in the wake of her mis­han­dling of the inves­ti­ga­tion into the mur­der of African American jog­ger Ahmad Arbery by a white police offi­cer and his son — opposed grant­i­ng Perry a new tri­al and sought to keep him in prison. The court over­turned Perry’s con­vic­tion on July 17, 2020 and released him on his own recog­ni­zance July 23, but the prospects of being retried hung over his head until the charges were dismissed. 

Higgins told the court that Swain’s fam­i­ly ​“gave me their bless­ing and their approval” to file the motion to dis­miss charges against Perry. 

“It took a long time, but I nev­er gave up,” Perry said in a state­ment released by the Georgia Innocence Project. Thanking his coun­sel, Perry said, ​“I knew that even­tu­al­ly some­one else would see the truth …. This indict­ment has been hang­ing over my head for over 20 years, and it’s such a relief to final­ly not have to wor­ry about being accused of this awful thing.” 

Speaking to Judge Scarlett after the court dis­missed the charges, Perry said, ​“After what hap­pened to me, I lost faith in the jus­tice sys­tem. I’m sure you can under­stand that…. I pray every day for jus­tice for Harold and Thelma Swain.”

The evi­dence in the case

The Swains were mur­dered on March 11, 1985, when an assailant described as a young white man with shoul­der-length blond hair entered the Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Waverly, Georgia after a Bible study class and shot them. A pair of glass­es and sev­er­al blonde hairs attached to its frame were found at the scene. The case remained unsolved for fif­teen years. Police sus­pect­ed Sparre but cred­it­ed his ali­bi. Then, in 2000, even though DNA from the hair did not match Perry’s DNA and the lead inves­ti­ga­tors in the case had deter­mined he could not have been at the church when the Swains were killed, Perry was arrest­ed for the murders. 

Assistant D.A. John Johnson — who obtained death sen­tences against death-row exonerees Larry Jenkins and Larry Lee, as well as Jimmy Meders, whose death sen­tence was com­mut­ed — sought the death penal­ty against Perry. At Perry’s tri­al in 2003, Johnson pre­sent­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny from the moth­er of Perry’s ex-girl­friend, who claimed he had told her he planned to kill one of the vic­tims. Johnson failed to dis­close that she had been paid $12,000 for her tes­ti­mo­ny. Johnson also pre­sent­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny from inves­ti­ga­tors claim­ing that Perry had made incrim­i­nat­ing state­ments dur­ing inter­views that they had not recorded.

After the jury con­vict­ed Perry of the mur­ders, Johnson offered him a deal: the pros­e­cu­tion would drop the death penal­ty if Perry waived his right to appeal the con­vic­tions. To avoid being wrong­ful­ly exe­cut­ed, Perry accept­ed the deal. In the 2020 court pro­ceed­ings, Johnson opposed vacat­ing the con­vic­tion, argu­ing that the deal barred Perry’s appeal. 

“The fact that they sought the death penal­ty on a case with incred­i­bly weak evi­dence, and involv­ing exten­sive mis­con­duct, is an indict­ment on the death penal­ty,” said Clare Gilbert, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Georgia Innocence Project (GIP), which rep­re­sent­ed Perry in his post-con­vic­tion appeals. ​“Thank God Dennis Perry wasn’t exe­cut­ed before any­body found this out.” 

Wrongful use or threat of the death penalty

More than 30 peo­ple who were con­vict­ed in tri­als in which pros­e­cu­tors sought the death penal­ty or threat­ened sus­pects or wit­ness­es with cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion if they did not coop­er­ate with law enforce­ment have been exon­er­at­ed since January 2019. A DPIC analy­sis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations found that the use or threat of the death penal­ty was impli­cat­ed in the cas­es of 19 peo­ple who were exon­er­at­ed in 2019. An ongo­ing DPIC review of the National Registry’s 2020 exon­er­a­tions has found at least 13 cas­es in which wrong­ful con­vic­tions were the prod­uct of the use or threat of the death penalty.