MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Pervis Payne has been on death row in Tennessee for more than three decades, but his supporters still are fighting for his release.
Payne was convicted of murdering his neighbor and her daughter in Millington in 1987. At a rally Wednesday in Memphis, advocates of the Free Pervis Payne Coalition told Local 24 News they will fight for justice until he is back home with his family.
"We believe that Pervis Payne is on death row unfairly."
"We don't believe that he committed this crime."
"Pervis Payne is a human, and we need to stand with Pervis Payne and his family."
"Anti-death penalty advocates used to stand on this corner at Union and McLean in front of this Walgreens each and every Wednesday about this same time, 4-5. So we wanted to stand on the shoulders who came before and do the work we feel called to do," said Andre E. Johnson, Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries.
"Justice should have no bias of gender, sexuality, color, or anything like that because justice should search for the truth," added Laramire Wheeler, Free Pervis Payne advocate.
"I don't think it would sit well with anybody, to be perfectly candid, if he was white. So, the whole racial justice comes into play there. It is enraging to me that our lives, there is a hierarchy of color. You are safe, or you are not safe, you are a judge or you are not judged.”
"We wanted people to know that there is an injustice happening right here in Shelby Tennessee."