TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Shelby DA Opposes New Law Allowing AG to Handle Certain Post-Conviction Cases

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on May 15, 2023

The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office has joined a motion filed by Memphis defense attorney Robert Hutton to prevent the Tennessee attorney general from handling a post-conviction case for his client. The motion challenges a new law, which removes power from local district attorneys to litigate death penalty post-convictions, often referred to as collateral reviews, when new evidence and competency questions are raised. The motion argues that the law is “unconstitutional” and violates voters’ rights, the Commercial Appeal reports. District Attorney Steve Mulroy tells the paper that he believes the law improperly infringes on “the inherent prosecutorial discretion of local elected district attorneys” and that it also violates the rules regarding the captions of bills. The bill in question originally dealt with rape-kit backlogs, but an amendment stripped that language and inserted the collateral review provision. The bill’s sponsor argued that the process needed streamlining and that under the law, the “attorney general will be able to move seamlessly up and down the trial court as necessary, and back into the appeals process” rather than turn cases temporarily over to local prosecutors.

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