Judge Resentences Pervis Payne to Concurrent Life Terms, Making Him Eligible for Parole in Five Years After 34 Years on Tennessee’s Death Row

A Memphis judge has resentenced Pervis Payne to two con­cur­rent life sen­tences, mak­ing the for­mer Tennessee death-row pris­on­er who has long main­tained his inno­cence eli­gi­ble to apply for parole in five years. The sen­tenc­ing order, issued by Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan on January 31, 2022, fol­lows decades of lit­i­ga­tion over whether Payne, who is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, was even sub­ject to the death penalty. 

County pros­e­cu­tors fought to exe­cute Payne for more than three decades, con­tin­u­ing to do so after the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 2002 that indi­vid­u­als who have Intellectual Disability were not eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. As a December 13, 2021 hear­ing date on Payne’s intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty approached, District Attorney Amy Weirich con­ced­ed that pros­e­cu­tors had no evi­dence to chal­lenge Payne’s claim, and Judge Skahan vacat­ed Payne’s death sen­tence on November 23, 2021. 

Payne, who is Black, was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1987 for the mur­ders of 28-year-old Charisse Christopher and her 2‑year-old daugh­ter Lacie, who were White. In a tri­al marred by pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and racial bias, pros­e­cu­tors alleged that Payne had been high on drugs and mur­dered Christopher after she sup­pos­ed­ly rebuffed his sex­u­al advances. No phys­i­cal evi­dence sup­port­ed the sex­u­al assault alle­ga­tions against Payne and police refused a request by Payne’s moth­er to con­duct blood test­ing on her son, who had nev­er used drugs. 

Judge Skahan resen­tenced Payne to two con­cur­rent life sen­tences, which would make Payne eli­gi­ble to apply for parole when he has served a total of 39 years. He has served 34 years so far. 

“Today is a great day, a great day for the Payne fam­i­ly and for Pervis Payne,” Payne’s lawyer, assis­tant fed­er­al defend­er Kelley Henry said after the rul­ing. ​“The Shelby County D.A. was effec­tive­ly ask­ing for a sen­tence of life with­out parole – which is not autho­rized under the law. The plain fact is, Pervis Payne is no threat to soci­ety and he never was.”

“After 34 years and fight­ing to see this day as such, it’s just over­whelm­ing,” said Payne’s sis­ter, Rolanda Holman.

Weirich had asked the court to sen­tence Payne to con­sec­u­tive life terms, which would have made him inel­i­gi­ble for parole until he was 85 years old. In a January 31, 2022 news release, the Shelby County District Attorney’s office said that ​“Weirich has asked the State Attorney General’s Office to appeal” Judge Skahan’s sentencing order.

In advo­cat­ing for con­sec­u­tive sen­tences, coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors showed the court crime scene video of the mur­ders. At the resen­tenc­ing hear­ing, three mem­bers of Christopher’s fam­i­ly gave vic­tim impact state­ments, describ­ing the last­ing pain their fam­i­ly con­tin­ues to endure decades later. 

Payne’s lawyers pre­sent­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from four Tennessee Department of Correction employ­ees, who attest­ed to Payne’s good behav­ior in prison, includ­ing his unblem­ished record and the time Payne came to the aid of a cor­rec­tions offi­cer who had been attacked in prison. More than 10 fam­i­ly mem­bers, friends, and vol­un­teers who vis­it­ed Payne and oth­ers on death row tes­ti­fied that Payne was ​“gen­tle, kind, spir­i­tu­al, and help­ful” and would have a tight-knit com­mu­ni­ty that could help him nav­i­gate post-prison life.

In the opin­ion accom­pa­ny­ing her rul­ing, Judge Skahan acknowl­edged that the Christopher fam­i­ly ​“has suf­fered tremen­dous­ly,” but con­clud­ed that the defense had pre­sent­ed ​“ample evi­dence” that Payne did not pose a dan­ger to soci­ety. On the oth­er hand, she said, pros­e­cu­tors had failed to estab­lish that con­sec­u­tive sen­tences were nec­es­sary to pro­tect the pub­lic against Payne. ​“If released from cus­tody, the defen­dant would have an exten­sive sup­port net­work to assist him in his con­tin­ued reha­bil­i­ta­tion,” she wrote. 

“The Judge con­sid­ered this mat­ter thought­ful­ly and delib­er­ate­ly and did the right thing by mak­ing the sen­tences con­cur­rent,” Henry said, in a state­ment. ​“She fol­lowed Tennessee law, which favors con­cur­rent sen­tences and places the bur­den on the State to prove that con­sec­u­tive sen­tenc­ing is nec­es­sary to pro­tect the public.” 

Henry said the hear­ing had pre­sent­ed Payne the oppor­tu­ni­ty to hug his son ​“for the first time with­out the specter of an exe­cu­tion hang­ing over their heads.” 

Henry attrib­uted Payne’s new sen­tence to reform efforts passed by the state leg­is­la­ture. In 2020, while a death war­rant for Payne’s exe­cu­tion was pend­ing, the Tennessee leg­isla­tive black caucus announced plans to intro­duce a bill, inspired by Payne’s case, that would cre­ate a pro­ce­dur­al mech­a­nism for death-row pris­on­ers to present their intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claims in the Tennessee courts. The leg­is­la­tors intro­duced the bill on November 4, 2020 and both hous­es of the leg­is­la­ture passed it by over­whelm­ing mar­gins in April 2021. One day after Governor Lee signed the bill into law.

“We are pro­found­ly grate­ful to Gov. Lee, Rep. GA Hardaway, and the Tennessee Legislature, for answer­ing the call of the Tennessee Supreme Court to mod­ern­ize our state’s intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty law which paved the way to remov­ing Pervis from death row,” Henry said in the state­ment. ​“Without them, Pervis would be fac­ing exe­cu­tion. We are equal­ly grate­ful to our broad and diverse nation­wide coali­tion of sup­port­ers, includ­ing more than 150 faith and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers right here in Memphis.”

However, she said, ​“Our work is not yet done. This jour­ney will con­tin­ue until we uncov­er the truth and Pervis is exonerated.”