![]() In 2019, Funk agreed to seek a sentence reduction to keep Black death row inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman in prison for life. ![]() Tennessee has put seven inmates to death since 2018, the most recent occurring in February 2020. "The new statute also violates the voting rights of such voters,” Mulroy's filing states. The attorney general is picked by Tennessee's Supreme Court. Mulroy supports McKay's motion, which argues that the new law hurts the district attorney’s ability to fulfill his responsibilities as an official elected locally under Tennessee's Constitution. “Governors and attorney generals have taken steps toward removing individual cases from the local DA's authority and even have sought to disqualify the DA from all potentially capital cases,” Dieter said.ĭieter said “it would make sense” for district attorneys to handle collateral challenges, which typically begin in trial courts. Richard Dieter, the Death Penalty Information Center’s executive director, said tension exists in capital cases where the district attorney has said the death penalty is flawed and that they will almost never seek it. ![]() Both governors reassigned death penalty cases to other prosecutors. In Florida, former state attorney Aramis Ayala clashed with Republican governors Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis for refusing to seek the death penalty. In Georgia, lawmakers passed a bill in March establishing a commission to discipline and remove prosecutors who Republicans believe aren’t sufficiently fighting crime. In recent years, other district attorneys around the country have refused to prosecute some Republican-passed state laws, from voting restrictions to limits on certain protest activity. Both have also said that they would make prosecuting doctors under the state’s abortion ban a low priority and that state laws targeting the LBGTQ+ community are unnecessary. Mulroy in Memphis and Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk in Nashville both have said they oppose the death penalty. They don’t fall under the appeals process, which the attorney general oversees. The handoff involves collateral proceedings in death penalty cases before a trial court, which apply to issues related to new evidence, DNA testing and intellectual disability, for example. Skrmetti was handed authority over the case from the local prosecutor, Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy, under the law passed this year. McKay's motion claims new scientific methods have revealed that firearms evidence presented at trial was unreliable and a ballistics expert's conclusions cannot stand. McKay was convicted of two murders during a robbery and sentenced to death 40 years ago. Lawyer Robert Hutton has filed a motion for Larry McKay, asking a judge to disqualify Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti from representing the state in McKay’s effort to have a judge hear new evidence and grant another trial. ![]() The statute is the latest example of attempts by GOP governors and legislatures in several states to take on locally elected officials who have de-prioritized enforcement of laws they deem unnecessary. ![]()
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