Entries tagged with “Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman”
Issues
Nov 17, 2022
Tennessee Attorney General’s Office Continues to Oppose Local Prosecutors Who Concede that Death-Row Prisoner Is Intellectually Disabled
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office attempted to preserve a trial court ruling denying Byron Black’s intellectual disability claim, arguing before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) on November 8. Black’s attorneys argue that a new law entitles him to relief from his death sentence because of his intellectual disability, and the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office agrees. However, a trial judge denied Black’s claim because it had been previously raised when Tennessee was…
Issues
Jun 08, 2022
Tennessee Death-Row Prisoner Appeals Ruling Denying Him Relief Despite Agreement by District Attorney that He is Intellectually Disabled
A Tennessee death-row prisoner who county prosecutors agree is intellectually disabled is appealing a trial judge’s refusal to vacate his death sentence under a law designed to provide condemned prisoners a mechanism to enforce the constitutional prohibition against executing individuals with intellectual disability. On June 1, 2022, lawyers for Byron Black (pictured) filed an appeal with the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals challenging Senior Judge Walter Kurtz’s ruling that Black could…
Issues
Dec 13, 2021
After Prolonged Fight With Local Prosecutors, Tennessee Attorney General Will Not Appeal Plea Deal Taking Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman Off Death Row
More than 34 years after having been sentenced to death in Nashville, Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman is coming off Tennessee’s death row. After a prolonged dispute between Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, and Davidson County reform District Attorney Glenn Funk, Slatery announced on December 10, 2021 that he would not appeal a November 11 plea deal that would resentence Abdur’Rahman to three consecutive life terms. Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins approved the resentencing…
Issues
Nov 11, 2021
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…
Issues
Aug 21, 2020
Commentary: Tennessee’s Commitment to Racial Justice Tested as Attorney General Continues to Push for Execution in Case Rife with Racial Bias
Declaring that “[r]acism still exists and has no place in society,” the Tennessee Supreme Court on June 25, 2020 directed its Access to Justice Commission (AJC) to create “a new initiative to identify and eliminate barriers to racial and ethnic fairness and justice.” The court’s pronouncement, at the height of the racial justice protests that swept the nation following the murder of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer, was meant to signal its concern about racial bias in the…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Feb 26, 2020
Tennessee Sets Execution Dates for Two Men With Issues of Innocence, Intellectual Disability, and Competency
Tennessee has set two more execution dates for 2020, directed, advocates say, at men whose cases present unresolved issues of innocence, intellectual disability, and mental competency. On February 24, 2020, the Tennessee Supreme Court granted state prosecutors’ applications for execution dates for Byron Black (pictured, left) and Pervis Payne (pictured, right). The court scheduled Black’s execution for October 8 and Payne’s for December 3, making them the fourth and fifth executions scheduled…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Sep 27, 2019
Tennessee Attorney General Asks State Supreme Court to Schedule Nine Executions and Undo Plea Deal that Took a Tenth Prisoner off Death Row
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery (pictured) has asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to set execution dates for an unprecedented nine death-row prisoners, the largest execution request in the modern history of Tennessee’s death penalty. On the same day, September 20, 2019, Slatery attempted to intervene in the case of death-row prisoner Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman to reactivate his death warrant and undo a court-approved plea deal with Nashville prosecutors that would overturn his death…
Issues
Sep 05, 2019
After 32 Years on Death Row, Tennessee Prisoner’s Death Sentence is Vacated for Prosecutorial Misconduct
Thirty-two years after he was sentenced to death in a trial tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, Tennessee death-row prisoner Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman (pictured) has been resentenced to life in prison. On August 30, 2019, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins approved a plea deal reached between Abdur’Rahman and Nashville prosecutors, vacated Abdur’Rahman’s death sentence, and in its place imposed three consecutive life sentences. Abdur’Rahman, who faced an April 16, 2020 execution…
Issues
Feb 24, 2011
REPRESENTATION: Tennessee Inmate Faces Execution Because of Lawyer’s Failures
A forthcoming article in the ABA Journal reveals the tragic admissions of failure by a well-known defense lawyer that led to a death sentence and potential execution of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman (pictured) in Tennessee. Lionel Barrett, who represented Abdur’Rahman in 1987, now takes full responsibility for his lack of attention to critical details and for having his client end up on death row. Looking back on the case 24 years later, Barrett said, “It was the perfect storm. Everything I could have…
Jun 26, 2003
UPCOMING EXECUTION: Amnesty Report Examines Juror Sentencing Concerns in Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman Case
A new Amnesty International report examines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate scheduled for execution on June 18. His case involves questions of inadequate defense and prosecutorial misconduct. The report notes that after learning of exculpatory and mitigating evidence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s trial, eight of the original trial jurors said that they no longer have confidence in their sentencing verdict. In addition, a Tennessee Supreme Court…