TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on May 13, 2021

Lawyers for death row inmate Pervis Payne are asking the Shelby County Criminal Court to declare that he cannot be executed because he is intellectually disabled, Tennessee Tribune reports. The petition takes advantage of a new state law that provides an opportunity for death row inmates to claim their execution would violate the Tennessee and U.S. Constitutions because of an intellectual disability.