Governor Bill Lee signed a bill curing a defect in
Tennessee law that had prevented death-row prisoners from challenging their death sentences on the basis of intellectual disability,
Pervis Payne’s (pictured) lawyers asked a Memphis trial court to vacate his death sentence.
On May 12, 2021, federal defenders representing Payne filed a
Petition to Determine Ineligibility to be Executed in the Shelby County Criminal Court seeking that the court “declare that Mr. Payne is ineligible to be executed because he is intellectually disabled.” Prior to the bill’s May 11 signing, Tennessee lacked a mechanism for prisoners to litigate their ineligibility for the death penalty if their death sentences had already been upheld on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 2002 decision in