Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy (D) responded on Thursday to calls by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) for Mulroy to provide agreements between his office and three restorative justice organizations that seek to lower Shelby County’s number of prosecutions or eliminate bail, and face investigation for his role in arranging the “illegal” release of a prisoner who was sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars.
Taylor issued a formal request with the Tennessee District Attorneys Conference (TDAC) seeking the agreements between Mulroy’s office and the restorative justice organizations last week, and previously called for Mulroy and Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan to be investigated on December 6.
After Taylor sent a letter to the Tennessee District Attorneys Conference (TDAC) regarding Mulroy’s agreements with the restorative justice organizations, the district attorney told Action News 5 the state senator’s concerns are “baseless.”
Mulroy cited his office’s public announcements of his office’s agreements, and the previous relationship between the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office and the Vera Institute, one of the three groups highlighted by Taylor, and noted that Taylor did not launch similar complaints in previous years. Taylor is serving in his first term as a state senator, but was previously a member of the Shelby County Commission alongside Mulroy.
“The county itself for years has used as a consultant the Vera Institute,” Mulroy told the outlet, including under his predecessor. Mulroy charged “Taylor called for no investigations then, nor when crime rose steadily over a decade” before he took office. Memphis and Shelby County are currently experiencing a 9.6 percent surge in all crime, driven by a 5 percent increase in major violent crime and a 26 percent increase in major property crime.
Characterizing Taylor’s concerns as “political,” the district attorney claimed he is “trying to get a meeting” with the senator to explain “the new solid public safety initiatives” his office is overseeing.
Reached via email, Taylor told The Tennessee Star he did not make previous complaints because he was not a Tennessee lawmaker.
“I didn’t object to the institution of slavery because I wasn’t there. I didn’t object to Plessy vs. Ferguson, because I wasn’t there. I didn’t object to the US refusing Jewish refugees at the beginning of WWII, because I wasn’t there. I didn’t object to Amy Weirich’s affiliation with these same restorative justice groups, because I wasn’t a senator.” Taylor told The Star, “I am a senator now. I am here. I am objecting!”
In his appearance on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy last week, Taylor said he is seeking to reveal whether the “restorative justice” groups Mulroy partnered with have special access to real-time bail data.
“I fear that they’re playing an outsized role in these restorative justice schemes that are being advanced by D.A. Mulroy,” Taylor told Leahy, adding that he wants to learn “whether or not they have exclusive access to real-time bail data.”
Taylor said he also wants to know if the groups Mulroy partnered with receive “advanced knowledge” about arrests, and expressed concern “they are actually shaping and manipulating the information to show that what they’re doing is actually working.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Shelby County Courthouse by Shelby County, “D.A. Steve Mulroy” is by Steve Mulroy, and State Sen. Brent Taylor” by State Sen Brent Taylor.
