Citing Race Discrimination, Nashville Judge Reverses Conviction of Tennessee Death-Row Prisoner Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, Approves Plea Deal for Life Sentence

A Nashville judge has for a sec­ond time approved a plea deal that would remove Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman from Tennessee​’s death row and resen­tence him to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. On November 9, 2021, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins entered an order over­turn­ing Abdur’Rahman’s 1987 con­vic­tion based on for­mer Davidson County Assistant District Attorney General John Zimmerman’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al use of dis­cre­tionary strikes to remove African Americans from the jury. The court then accept­ed a nego­ti­at­ed plea agree­ment between local pros­e­cu­tors and the defense that with­drew the death penal­ty from Abdur’Rahman’s case. 

Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk told the court that new­ly dis­cov­ered pros­e­cu­tion notes from jury selec­tion in the case and com­ments Zimmerman made dur­ing a jury selec­tion train­ing ses­sion in which he advo­cat­ed race-based use of jury strikes amount­ed to a ​“smok­ing gun of racial bias” in Abdur’Rahman’s case. The state’s ​“inter­est in the final­i­ty of con­vic­tions and sen­tences,” Funk said, ask­ing the court to over­turn Abdur’Rahman’s con­vic­tion, ​“is out­weighed by the inter­ests of jus­tice, and in some sit­u­a­tions by recog­ni­tion of the sanc­ti­ty of human life.”

Under the plea deal, which had the sup­port of the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, Abdur’Rahman admit­ted guilt on three charges — mur­der, attempt­ed mur­der, and armed rob­bery — and waived his right to future appeals. In exchange, he was sen­tenced to three con­sec­u­tive life terms. Watkins had vacat­ed Abdur’Rahman’s death sen­tence and approved a sim­i­lar deal in 2019, while a death war­rant for Abdur’Rahman’s exe­cu­tion was pend­ing. However, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III inter­vened in the case, claim­ing that Funk and the tri­al court had no author­i­ty to vacate Abdur’Rahman’s sen­tence in the absence of a proven con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tion. Abdur’Rahman was pro­ce­du­ral­ly barred from claim­ing jury dis­crim­i­na­tion in his case, Slatery said. 

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals struck down the first plea deal and returned the case to Judge Watkins with direc­tions on how to pro­ceed. Counsel for Abdur’Rahman argued that new evi­dence of jury dis­crim­i­na­tion per­mit­ted him to chal­lenge his con­vic­tion. In his rul­ing, Watkins agreed that a con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tion had occurred and over­turned Abdur’Rahman’s con­vic­tions. The plea agree­ment then obvi­at­ed the need for con­duct­ing a new trial.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has 30 days to deter­mine whether to appeal. Slatery issued a state­ment through an office spokesper­son that state pros­e­cu­tors were review­ing the order and ​“we are con­sid­er­ing next steps.”

Abdur’Rahman was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1987 for the stab­bing death of Patrick Daniels. As her two young chil­dren cow­ered in an adja­cent room, Norma Jean Norman was also seri­ous­ly wound­ed but sur­vived. Abdur’Rahman argued that his con­vic­tion should be over­turned because tri­al pros­e­cu­tor John Zimmerman dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly struck two Black poten­tial jurors based on racist stereo­types. Zimmerman attempt­ed to jus­ti­fy his strike of one Black juror by assert­ing that the col­lege-edu­cat­ed Black pas­tor seemed ​“une­d­u­cat­ed” and lacked ​“com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.” 

Abdur’Rahman’s lawyers had filed pre­vi­ous plead­ings high­light­ing oth­er mis­con­duct by Zimmerman, includ­ing a false state­ment that Abdur’Rahman’s coat had been stained with the vic­tims’ blood. Abdur’Rahman’s court-appoint­ed tri­al coun­sel — who had not talked to a sin­gle eye­wit­ness, con­duct­ed any inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion of the crime, or explored evi­dence of his client’s men­tal ill­ness — nev­er ordered test­ing on the coat, which become the most con­vinc­ing evi­dence of his guilt. Later test­ing of the coat deter­mined that the stains were not blood at all, but red paint from Abdur’Rahman’s workplace.