This Sunday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will reveal a special 32-page feature, uncovering the most dramatic developments in a 35-year-old double murder case.
A couple was shot inside Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Camden County during a Bible study after a stranger walked in and got into a confrontation with a deacon. Dennis Perry, 58, has been in prison for 20 years for the 1985 murders, and has insisted he’s innocent.
» RELATED: AJC INVESTIGATES: DNA points to former suspect in 1985 church murders
The case has been the subject of a podcast and an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries.” But when reporting by the AJC’s Joshua Sharpe uncovered problems with the alibi of a previous suspect, Perry’s attorneys at the Georgia Innocence Project and King & Spalding conducted a DNA test. That led Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson to ask the GBI to reopen the decades old case.
Our journalists and photographers reviewed thousands of documents and conducted dozens of interviews to shed light on an investigation many believed had been solved.
» RELATED: GBI reopens probe into church murders after new DNA evidence emerges
“One night in 1985, a white man walked into an African American church in southeast Georgia and fatally shot a beloved couple. For decades, DNA found at the crime scene didn’t match that of any of the suspects who were tested — until now,” wrote AJC reporter Joshua Sharpe back in April. Now, this Sunday’s feature will reveal even more details surrounding this monumental case.
In addition to the print section in Sunday's paper and AJC ePaper, readers will be able to explore the evidence files, photos, videos and timeline at AJC.com/alibi.
