Attorneys say errors marred case, and Lee may agree
When investigators for the Millington Police Department swabbed the 1987 crime scene, they didn’t lift fingerprints from the sink knobs, door handles or toilet handle.
Neither were prints taken from the open kitchen drawer where officials assumed the knife used as the murder weapon was taken.
And those are just some of the errors that attorneys for Pervis Payne, a man convicted of a double murder, say marred the investigation and the years that have led up to Payne’s plea for
clemency.
Now, it’s possible that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is considering some of those alleged errors as he weighs Payne’s petition for clemency.
In November, Kelley Henry, Payne’s attorney, sent a packet of supplemental information in support of Payne’s clemency request to Lee’s legal team, answering questions and providing information they had requested.
Many of the requests from Lee’s legal team revolved around issues that Henry and Payne’s legal team had raised as errors tainting the Payne case from the very beginning.
“Even if (Lee) isn’t as convinced as I am that Pervis is innocent, there are so many questions surrounding this case that we just can’t execute a man on such an incompetent investigation,” Henry said. “If you’re going to execute somebody, you want to make sure you’re right — and you can’t be sure you’re right.”
A spokesperson for Lee said he was still reviewing Payne’s case “through the established process.”
Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich has maintained that there was significant evidence to convict Payne of the crime.
Payne was convicted in a 1988 trial of the deaths of Millington woman Charisse Christopher, 28, and her 2-yearold daughter, Lacie. Christopher’s 3year-old son, Nicholas, survived multiple stab wounds in the brutal attack that took place in Christopher’s apartment.
He has maintained his innocence, saying 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 was granted a reprieve from his Dec. 3, 2020 execution date by Lee due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That reprieve ended Friday and a new execution date could be scheduled anytime by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Weirich declined to comment on the specific inconsistencies and alleged errors raised by Payne’s attorneys.
“If the facts aren’t on your side, attack the investigation,” Weirich said in a written statement Thursday. “Mr. Payne has been vigorously defended by teams of lawyers for more than 30 years. The case has been reviewed by the Shelby County Criminal Court, by the U.S. Supreme Court and by every state and federal court in between. The proof of his guilt is overwhelming. As with nearly every death penalty case, this is a lastditch defense effort to use press releases and social media to shift public sympathy to the convicted offender and away from the only victims in the case — a young mother and her young children who were stabbed more than 100 times.”
The crime scene
Payne’s fingerprints were found at the crime scene, on beer cans and on a phone.
However, no reports suggest any attempt to take swabs of visual blood spots in the bathroom or elsewhere in the apartment, Henry wrote in her response to Lee’s legal team.
“There are no reports of attempts to take fingerprints of the toilet handle, sink knobs, doorknob, highchair, kitchen table, coffee table, or other important surfaces,” Henry wrote in her response. “Because of this failure, important evidence was not preserved.”
Crime scene photos and testimony from the trial also indicate that the bodies were moved prior to photographs being taken or as photos were taken, Henry wrote.
One officer testified, according to the trial transcript, that Lacie Jo was “laying on her back” when he entered the apartment. Later, he testifies that she has been turned onto her stomach. At the trial, he was shown crime scene photos of her lying on her stomach, according to the trial transcript.
Henry provided the governor’s office with photos of Christopher both face down and face up, indicating that she had been moved.
A hat believed to have belonged to Pervis Payne “was snapped around (Lacie Jo’s) arm when we got there,” one officer testified, but was later removed by an EMT, according to testimony. Photos then showed the cap placed under Lacie Jo’s arm, as though it had been placed there for the photos, Henry wrote.
There are also conflicting reports regarding the recovery of three beer cans purchased by Payne, which Henry said suggests that the cans were staged inside the apartment for photos.
The investigation, missing evidence
At trial, prosecutors painted a picture of Payne as a drug-crazed killer.
But although Payne’s mother Bernice Payne asked investigators to drug test her son, they refused, according to her testimony.
There also is conflicting testimony about where an orange syringe cap was found — either in Pervis Payne’s pocket or on the floor of the residence in which Payne was found. A photograph shows it on the floor of the residence. There are additional inconsistencies in whether a piece of paper containing a white substance taken from Payne was white or blue. The paper is no longer in custody and was not in custody at the time of the trial.
The victims’ clothing was not preserved or examined prior to trial, Henry wrote.
And in the more than 30 years since the trial, more key pieces of evidence have gone missing.
Although on July 29, 2020, the state said that fingernail scrapings taken from Christopher existed, they later said the fingernail scrapings were not in custody.
“That’s critical evidence in a murder case,” Henry said in a streamed dialogue with The Christian Recorder Wednesday.
There were signs that Christopher had fought back against her attacker, meaning his DNA was likely captured underneath her fingernails.
Additionally, vaginal swabs from a rape kit no longer exist, and there’s no paper trail indicating whether they were destroyed or where their chain of custody ends, Henry has said.
“No one has made the law enforcement or district attorney general’s office come to account for what happened, why the discrepancy, where is the chain of custody for this incredibly important evidence in a capital murder case,” Henry said. “They have no explanation.”
Lee’s legal team may also be considering Payne’s claim that he has an intellectual disability, according to the supplemental information provided by Henry.
Both the Tennessee and U.S. Supreme Courts have ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute someone with an intellectual disability, but Payne has never been able to bring his claim before the courts due to procedural reasons.
Currently, Tennessee legislators are crafting a bill that would allow those already convicted whose sentence is final to bring a claim of intellectual disability before the courts.
Henry said that ultimately, she is grateful that Lee’s legal team seems to be examining these issues raised “very closely.”
“I argue all these questions really point to Pervis has been telling the truth all these years,” she said. “I want the governor to believe what I believe.”
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.