MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A district attorney in Tennessee said Thursday that she is fighting a death row inmate’s request to have a judge order DNA testing of evidence in his case.
Shelby County district attorney Amy Weirich said a bag of evidence reviewed by Pervis Payne’s lawyers in an evidence property room last year came from a different case that has nothing to do with the 1987 stabbings of a woman and her daughter for which Payne was convicted and sentenced to death.
Payne is scheduled to be executed in Nashville on Dec. 3. Payne’s lawyers have argued that a Shelby County court must order the DNA testing because Payne’s case meets the requirements for testing under the law.
At the time of his trial, DNA testing of evidence was unavailable, and no testing has ever been done in his case. A previous request for DNA testing in 2006 was refused based on a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling that has since been overturned.
The evidence includes the murder weapon and numerous blood-soaked items. It also includes a pillow, a comforter and bedsheets that a Shelby County property room employee said was part of the crime scene. Payne’s lawyers reviewed the bedding in December 2019 and included it in their DNA testing petition.