Pervis Payne is set to be executed on Dec. 3, weeks before Tennessee’s next legislative session begins. His attorneys hope Gov. Bill Lee will postpone his execution while the bill makes it way through the legislative process.
New Documentary Looks At Flaws In A High-Profile Nashville Death Penalty Case
A film that debuted last week at the Nashville Film Festival takes a deeper look at the conviction of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, whom Nashville’s district attorney has asked to be spared from a death sentence.
West Tennessee Judge Grants DNA Testing Ahead Of December Execution
A Shelby County man who has spent more than three decades on death row for a crime he’s always said he did not commit has been granted one more chance to try to prove his innocence.
Racial Bias Taints Death Penalty Cases In Tennessee, National Report Finds
A new national report on racial disparities in the death penalty explores two high-profile cases that are winding their way through the courts here in Tennessee. It highlights the ways Black people are more likely to be discriminated against — from arrest to jury selection to execution.
Innocence Project Makes Final Plea For DNA Testing In Pervis Payne Death Penalty Case
Payne has never denied he was there. But his attorneys say testing could prove someone else was there, too. That could be enough to overturn his sentence.
Innocence Project Calls For Testing Newly Discovered Evidence In Tennessee Death Row Case
A Tennessee man who is scheduled for execution this December is asking the state to give him one more chance to prove his innocence.
Tennessee Death Penalty Case Raises Questions About Who Has The Power To Stop An Execution
An agreement that spared the life of a man on death row could transform the future of death penalty cases in Tennessee. Judges raised concerns about the settlement during a Court of Criminal Appeals hearing Tuesday morning.
Nicholas Sutton’s Last Words Before Execution: ‘I’m Just Grateful To Be A Servant Of God’
Nicholas Sutton thanked his family, friends and God before he was executed by electric chair Thursday night. Sutton was sentenced to death in 1986 for killing a fellow inmate while in prison for three other murders he committed as a teen. Sutton is the seventh person executed in Tennessee since the end of a nine-year […]
‘He Saved My Life’: Prison Guards, Jurors And Victims’ Families Defend Death Row Inmate Nicholas Sutton
Gov. Bill Lee announced Wednesday that he won’t intervene in Nicholas Sutton’s scheduled execution Thursday. Sutton will likely die in the electric chair Thursday night for killing a fellow inmate in January of 1985. That’s after more than a dozen people asked the governor to let Sutton spend the rest of his life in prison. […]
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