The Change Shelby County Could See With a Progressive District Attorney

The most important race on the 2022 Shelby County ballot is the District Attorney’s race. Even more important than County Mayor, because of the DA’s wide, single-handed power. The DA has broad discretion over who to prosecute, what to charge, what plea agreements to accept, and what sentencing recommendations to make.

And there’s never been a more important case for change in that office. Our current DA has been called out personally for prosecutorial misconduct by the Tennessee Supreme Court, the highest federal court in our region, and an ethics panel of the Tennessee State Bar. In a Harvard Law School report on the worst U.S. prosecutors judged by convictions overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct, Shelby County ranked #1.

These dubious honors bespeak a “win at all costs” culture and a mass incarceration mindset that’s wrong for Shelby County. We’re first in the state for the death penalty, for racially disproportionate outcomes, for trying and sentencing juveniles as adults, and for keeping presumed-innocent people in jail pretrial for months and years waiting for their day in court.

But this “tough on crime” mindset isn’t keeping us safer. We’re first not just in the state, but in the nation, for violent crime—which has risen every year since our incumbent DA took office 10 years ago.

We need change. We need to use alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenses, so we can refocus efforts on violent crime, which is a plague in our community, particularly in minority neighborhoods.

There are many other reform ideas which have worked well in other cities that a progressive DA could adopt, without any need of legislative buy-in. For example, we need bail reform. People who haven’t yet been convicted of any crime shouldn’t languish at 201 Poplar for the sole reason that they can’t afford cash bail. Even when they’re eventually released due to acquittal, charges dropped, etc., we’ve still disrupted their lives and shattered communities.

Serious violent charges aside, we should do pretrial release for persons awaiting trial, absent some specific evidence that a defendant presents a risk of flight or a danger to the community. Other cities that have tried this—DC, Philadelphia, New Orleans—have significantly reduced their jail populations, saving millions in tax dollars, without increasing the rate of people failing to show up for court, or reoffending while awaiting trial.

Ditto our juvenile justice system. We transfer juveniles to adult court more than all other Tennessee counties combined. Studies show that juveniles sent to adult prison are at substantially higher risk of sexual assault and suicide, and are more likely to commit further crimes when they get out. Wherever possible, we should treat kids as kids, keeping them in the juvenile system where there are more robust rehabilitative opportunities.

[The U.S. Justice Department did extensive studies of our Juvenile Court and concluded that there were widespread violations of both Due Process and racial discrimination. The court-appointed monitors continued to find that we still had problems, but the local powers that be convinced the Trump Justice Department to unilaterally stop monitoring. That was wrong.]

Finally, we should be more transparent and sensitive to the fact that our system makes mistakes. Nashville’s Conviction Integrity Unit, a dedicated group of professionals who objectively review past cases to identify people who’ve been wrongfully convicted, has had great success in recent years. Local activists have been calling for years for such a unit in Shelby, but our incumbent opposes it. On a similar note, her office consistently opposes DNA testing. We shouldn’t be afraid to own up to our mistakes.

These reforms and others like it can restore public confidence in our justice system, a confidence which the Memphis/Shelby County Crime Commission’s own polling shows is sorely lacking, especially among the African-American community. Restored confidence can get the community to cooperate more with law enforcement, providing tips and serving as witnesses. It’s that community cooperation that’s essential to bending the curve on violent crime.

All-tough-all-the-time isn’t making us safer. We need to be tough on violent crime, but smart and compassionate on nonviolent crime, juveniles, and people who haven’t even been convicted of a crime. A progressive-minded DA can make Shelby County fairer, and safer.

Written by Steve Mulroy, a former federal prosecutor and U.S. Justice Dept. civil rights lawyer, teaches criminal law and procedure at the University of Memphis law school. He was a Democratic County Commissioner from 2006-2014. He is running as a Democrat for Shelby County District Attorney.