A virtual community forum on “Race, Wrongful Conviction, and the Death Penalty” will be held at 4 p.m., Sunday, October 25.

A focus will be on the planned execution of Pervis Payne, scheduled for December 3 in Nashville. He is a Black man with an intellectual disability and son of a highly respected pastor, a press release said.

The speakers will be Rolanda Holman, Payne’s sister, who will describe the circumstances surrounding his case and the push for DNA testing and commutation of his sentence; Sabrina Butler Smith, exoneree from Mississippi’s death row and Memphis resident, who will connect issues from her case to those in Payne’s case and the broader realities of racial injustice inherent in the death penalty; and the Reverend Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who will reflect on current issues raised by the death penalty, particularly as they relate to race and wrongful conviction, the press release said. [Read more…]