Tennessee’s criminal justice system has topped several lists this year — largely for lagging behind the rest of the country in reforms.
The state received national attention for having one of the highest rates of voter disenfranchisement for felony convictions in the country, and making it harder for people who served their sentence to get their rights restored.
The state has also been called an outlier for having the strictest sentence for young people convicted of homicide. That statue was recently overturned by the state supreme court for violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment — so 122 incarcerated people may soon be eligible for a parole hearing.
Here are some other notable criminal justice stories from the city and state this year.
Police shootings
In 2021 Metro Nashville Police officers fatally shot seven people, surpassing previous years on record. In most of the cases, mental health was a factor.
It appeared that things shifted this year after the January shooting of Landon Eastep on I-65. Eastep was shot 12 times by multiple officers.
While MNPD says there have been no substantial policy changes, there were no shootings between January and November.
That changed on Nov. 12 with two shootings in less than 24 hours. The first was 26-year-old Senquarius Demonta Williams, who shot at officers at a Madison crime scene.
Photos courtesy of Colby's Army and Allen Searson Drandon John Brown was known as Chief among outreach workers and friends.
The second was an unhoused man named Drandon John Brown. To his friends, he was known as Chief.
Advocates have drawn parallels between Chief’s shooting and that of Eastep in January. Both men were experiencing mental health crises and unstable housing situations. Both were armed with a blade.
Victims’ family members and advocates see the department’s mental health response as the next target for reforms. MNPD has been scaling up its partnership with mental health counselors, but it hasn’t yet expanded to every precinct in the city.
Executions are paused
After 7 months, an independent investigation into lethal injection protocols in Tennessee is complete. While the report is not public yet, Governor Bill Lee announced he is reviewing the findings and will provide an update on next steps by the end of the year.
Back in April, Gov. Bill Lee halted the execution of Oscar Smith just an hour before it was scheduled to take place. It was discovered that the medication doses had not gone through quality testing required to ensure nothing unexpected is present that could cause someone pain.
The review covered not only the particulars of that incident, but also the policy manual used in executions and relevant staffing issues at the Department of Corrections. It was conducted by Edward Stanton III, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.
There have been long-standing concerns over lethal injections in Tennessee. The protocols have been questioned for years, and even contributed to a nearly decade-long hiatus as the state struggled to find the proper drugs.
Some on death row have opted to be killed in the electric chair in recent years out of fear that lethal injection would be more painful. Since 2019, three of four executions have been carried out by electric chair.
Guns in cars
Over the last few years, Tennessee has continued to roll back restrictions on gun ownership in the state. The impact of those laws can be seen in one very key statistic.
In 2021, more than 1,300 guns were stolen out of cars in Nashville. 2022 has already beaten that record, and the number will continue to climb until the end of the year.
The results can be deadly — sometimes children are the ones getting their hands on these stolen guns.
Paige Pfleger WPLN NewsMaricela Morales stands in front of a photo of her son, Joseluis. He was shot and killed by another teen who found a gun in a car.
The number of teens charged with first-time gun possession is on track to be the highest it’s been since 2019. Charges fell during the pandemic, but now show a return to pre-pandemic levels.
Some of those kids were caught bringing guns to their schools.
The juvenile court is keeping a close eye on these numbers — coinciding with an increased police presence in schools following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this past summer.
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