Judge vacates death sentences of Pervis Payne, who was to be executed for a crime he says he didn't commit

A Tennessee judge this week vacated the death sentences of Pervis Payne, who has spent more than three decades on death row for two murders he says he did not commit, due to the inmate's intellectual disability.

As a result, Payne now faces two life sentences, though it remains to be decided whether he will serve them concurrently or consecutively.

"Thirty-four years of trauma and pain and fear just released themselves in that courtroom," Payne's attorney, Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry, said in an interview Friday, describing the moments before Tuesday's hearing when Payne wept as he hugged her.