Pervis Payne v. State of Tennessee

In 1988, the Petitioner, Pervis Payne, was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit first degree murder. For the capital offenses, the jury imposed sentences of death. The trial court imposed a sentence of thirty years confinement for the non-capital conviction. The convictions and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal by the Tennessee Supreme Court. State v. Payne, 791 S.W.2d 10 (Tenn. 1990), aff’d by, 501 U.S. 808,  111 S. Ct. 2597 (1991). The Petitioner later sought post-conviction relief which pursuit was unsuccessful. See Pervis Tyrone Payne v. State, No. 02C01-9703-CR-00131 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, Jan. 15, 1998), perm. to appeal denied, (Tenn. Jun. 8, 1998). On September 7, 2006, the Petitioner filed a motion to compel testing of evidence under the Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act of 2001. The post-conviction court denied the motion on March 29, 2007. Upon review of the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.