Pervis Payne, on death row for 33 years, made his first live court appearance in more than a decade Friday, July 16, as attorneys debated accessing his prison records as part of a mental evaluation. 

Payne, 54, has been on Tennessee’s death row since his 1988 conviction for the Millington stabbing deaths a year earlier of Charisse Christopher, 28, and her 2-year-old daughter, Lacie. Christopher’s 3-year-old son Nicholas, who was stabbed multiple times, survived the attack.

Judge allows state to evaluate Pervis Payne’s mental state

During Friday’s hearing before Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan, prosecutors requested access to the records as the state attempts to determine Payne’s intellectual ability.

Payne’s attorneys filed a petition earlier asking that he be declared intellectually disabled, saying he was diagnosed when he was 20 years old with an intellectual disability and therefore is exempt from execution under recently approved state legislation. Under state and federal law, a person with an intellectual disability cannot be executed.

Payne was set to be executed in December but was granted a temporary reprieve by Gov. Bill Lee in April because of COVID-19. The reprieve has expired and now the Tennessee Supreme Court is awaiting the results of Payne’s mental evaluation to determine if he has an intellectual disability before issuing a decision on his execution.

Both sides ultimately agreed at Friday’s hearing to table the state’s motion for more records as the state agreed to reduce its list of requested information from Riverbend Maximum Security Prison, where Payne has been held for the past 32 years. Both sides will review the medical records the state has already received together. 

Pervis Payne gains new supporters as reprieve set to expire

Payne’s attorney, public defender Kelley Henry, called the motion for additional records, filed by Shelby County Asst. Dist. Attorney Steve Jones, a “fishing expedition.” 

Pervis Payne attorneys file petition to present intellectual disability claim

Henry said she had no issue with the state conducting its mental evaluation of Payne, but she said the state’s motion went a step beyond just an evaluation.

“The court should not authorize such a fishing expedition. Further, if the state is permitted such access, the due process requires Mr. Payne be given the same access to prepare to confront and cross-examine the state’s witnesses,” Henry said. 

Prosecutors filed the motion June 21, asking the court to allow the state’s expert, Dr. Tucker Johnson, to evaluate Payne and also interview the staff at Riverbend. The motion also asks for access to all his records, including medical and disciplinary records. 

Skahan ruled last month the state could hire its own expert to evaluate the mental state of Payne.

Jones, the prosecutor for the DA’s office, said the medical expert the state hired requested the records from the prison as part of her evaluation. He told Skahan they have already received some of Payne’s medical records, but he has not reviewed them yet.

After a short recess ordered by the judge, as both sides went back and forth on the matter, Jones and Henry agreed to review the records together and the state agreed to reduce its list of requested prison records.

Payne’s attorney also requested that the evaluation of Payne be videotaped. The prosecution objected to the motion, saying the state did not have access to a videotape done by an expert hired by Payne’s legal team.

New DNA evidence not enough to exonerate Payne, judge says

Dr. Stephen Greenspan, a California-based developmental psychologist hired by the defense, briefly testified at Friday’s hearing that videotaping a suspect does not negatively impact a mental evaluation.

Skahan said she would issue a written opinion on the motions to allow the state access to Payne’s prison records, interviewing the prison officers and videotaping the evaluation.

After the hearing, Payne’s family said it was good to see him in court and in clothes other than his “prison whites.”

National Civil Rights Museum figure joins prison reform group

His sister, Rolanda Holman, said she picked out the suit for her older brother to wear during his court appearance. The last time Payne was in a Shelby County courtroom was in 2007 as his attorneys petitioned the court to allow DNA evidence in his case be tested.

“It felt amazing for me to be able to see him in this day and time and outside of those prison whites,” Holman said. “I looked at him and I said, ‘Boy, you look dapper. You look good.’

“It is a different change from before until now, to be able to see how we have support. We have an overwhelming love from the community that is standing with us and behind us. We didn’t have that before. But we have built the momentum and the movement to be able to create justice that he so well deserves.”

That support was seen Thursday, July 15, as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held a press conference at the National Civil Rights Museum. SCLC national President Dr. Charles Steele Jr. announced that the civil rights organization, founded in 1957 by civil rights icons including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin and Ralph Abernathy, was joining the movement to free Payne from death row and prison. 

“If you believe in fairness, you need to get behind this movement of Pervis Payne,” Steele said. “We want to have a national movement in Memphis, Tennessee. Who cares about the FBI? Who cares about getting assassinated? We’re gonna free Pervis Payne.”

The court had previously scheduled Dec. 13 for attorneys to be back in court for results of Payne’s mental evaluation.