evidence: Payne, who is Black, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 for the murders of a white 28-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter. In a trial marred by prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias, prosecutors alleged without evidence that Payne — a pastor’s son with no prior criminal record, no history of drug use, and no history of violence — had been high on drugs and committed the murder after the victim rebuffed his sexual advances. After a 2019 court order compelled the state to provide the defense access to evidence, DNA testing identified the DNA of the two victims and an unknown male on the handle and blade of the knife used. Payne’s DNA was found only on a portion of the knife that was consistent with his account of how he had tried to assist the victims.