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 sen­tence and replace it with three con­sec­u­tive life sentences.

Slatery’s actions drew fire from defense lawyers but silence from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who said the attor­ney gen­er­al had the pre­rog­a­tive to seek the exe­cu­tion dates and chal­lenge Abdur’Rahman’s plea deal. Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry, whose office rep­re­sents sev­en of the nine pris­on­ers tar­get­ed in Slatery’s motion said the attor­ney general’s ​“request for mass exe­cu­tions” came as a ​“sur­prise.” ​“Each case is unique and rep­re­sents a num­ber of fun­da­men­tal con­sti­tu­tion­al prob­lems includ­ing inno­cence, racism, and severe men­tal ill­ness,” Henry told the Nashville Scene. ​“We will oppose the appoint­ed Attorney General’s request.” According to media reports, many of the pris­on­ers tar­get­ed by the exe­cu­tion requests have sig­nif­i­cant his­to­ries of mental illness.

Slatery also filed a notice of appeal in the Tennessee Supreme Court seek­ing to over­turn a plea deal reached between Abdur’Rahman and Davidson County (Nashville) District Attorney General Glenn Funk. Abdur’Rahman, who faced an April 16, 2020 exe­cu­tion date, had sought a new tri­al alleg­ing that pros­e­cu­tor John Zimmerman had dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly exclud­ed black prospec­tive jurors from serv­ing in Abdur’Rahman’s cap­i­tal tri­al. Based on these and oth­er mis­con­duct alle­ga­tions against Zimmerman, Funk agreed that jus­tice would be served with Abdur’Rahman’s sen­tence being reduced to life in prison. 

Funk told Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins that “[t]he pur­suit of jus­tice is incom­pat­i­ble with decep­tion” and con­ced­ed that Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al had been infect­ed by ​“overt racial bias.” ​“Prosecutors must nev­er be dis­hon­est to or mis­lead defense attor­neys, courts or juries,” he said. Judge Watkins approved the plea deal and resen­tenced Abdur’Rahman to three con­sec­u­tive terms of life in prison on August 30, 2019. 

In a state­ment issued in con­junc­tion with his court fil­ing, Slatery said that the plea deal ​“essen­tial­ly grant[s] clemen­cy through a court and a dis­trict attor­ney that both lack the author­i­ty to do so.” He claimed the resen­tenc­ing order ​“uproots decades of estab­lished legal pro­ce­dure and lacks any legal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion.” Funk did not respond to Slatery’s com­ments, except to say that his office stands by the plea deal. Abdur’Rahman’s lawyer Bradley MacLean said the plea deal was bind­ing on the state and called Slatery’s inter­ven­tion in the case ​“unprece­dent­ed.” ​“By attempt­ing to under­mine the author­i­ty and the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al dis­cre­tion of the District Attorney,” MacLean said, ​“the Attorney General is turn­ing a blind eye to the gross injus­tices in Mr. Abdur’Rahman’s case and is attempt­ing to sanc­tion the kind of racial bias and egre­gious pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that occurred in the case. The Attorney General is not seek­ing to uphold our most cher­ished con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ples. Instead, the Attorney General is tak­ing a stand for racism and a prosecutor’s vio­la­tion of his con­sti­tu­tion­al and ethical duties.”

Tennessee has car­ried out 11 exe­cu­tions since rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty in 1974. Between 1974 and 2017, it had nev­er exe­cut­ed more than two pris­on­ers in any year. However, it exe­cut­ed three pris­on­ers in 2018 and has exe­cut­ed two so far in 2019, with one more exe­cu­tion still sched­uled this year. 

Slatery is seek­ing exe­cu­tion dates for four death-row pris­on­ers from Davidson County—Byron Black, Oscar Smith, Henry Hodges, and Donald Middlebrooks—as well as Pervis Payne and Tony Carruthers from Shelby County, Farris Morris (Madison County), Gary Sutton (Blount County), and Harold Nichols (Hamilton County).