BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A judge says he could decide by Friday whether a Georgia man should get a new trial in the 1985 shooting deaths of a husband and wife.
Dennis Perry is serving two life sentences for the killings of Harold and Thelma Swain, who were slain inside Rising Daughters Baptist Church in Camden County. The 58-year-old Perry has been in prison for 20 years on a life sentence. But his attorneys are seeking a new trial after DNA evidence emerged tying another suspect to the crime scene.
The state, though, argued at a Monday hearing that Perry can’t seek a new trial because he signed an agreement to forgo appeals as part of an agreement to a life sentence after his conviction, avoiding a possible death penalty.
“He waived all appeal rights,” The Brunswick News reports Assistant District Attorney John Johnson as saying. He led the prosecution in Perry’s 2003 conviction.
Perry has denied involvement in the deaths since his January 2000 arrest. Perry was convicted in 2003 largely on the testimony of his ex-girlfriend’s mother, who said Perry had told her he planned to kill Harold Swain. The state didn’t disclose to the defense that the woman was paid $12,000 in reward money for her testimony.