Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan was publicly reprimanded in a disciplinary action by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct (TBJC) on Wednesday as a result of her actions that led to Tennessee briefly freeing a man in 2022 after he was previously sentenced to a 162-year prison sentence.
Skahan(pictured above) in 2022 arranged for the release of Courtney Anderson, who spent months outside of prison before Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge J. Ross Dyer ruled Skahan “illegally” released him and ordered Anderson remanded back into the state’s custody.
The reprimand reveals Skahan admittedly “made injudicious comments” about former Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, whose office worked to uphold the conviction and sentence, and former Shelby County Judge Joe Dailey, the trial judge who oversaw Anderson’s case, when speaking with defense attorneys seeking the prisoner’s release.
Additionally, the TBJC cites court records in which Skahan demanded that “we’ve got to try and do something” to help Anderson in a conversation with an attorney working under Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
Skahan also said she was “excited” about the prospect of releasing Anderson and asked prosecutors and defense attorneys, “How are we going to do this?”
The TBJC reprimand further expresses “concern with the trial court’s ex parte conversations with the District Attorney General’s Office,” which indicates Skahan “called the assistant district attorney (ADA) into her chambers and had an ex parte conversation with the ADA about the petitioner’s case.”
Skahan admitted to the TBJC that she “should have refrained from making” the comments about Weirich and Dailey. She said she “did not intend to demean anyone.” Skahan confirmed she disagreed with Anderson’s sentence, assigned a defense attorney to the case, and “acknowledged that [she] exceeded [her] authority in the matter.”
“In imposing this sanction, the panel considered in mitigation that you have taken full responsibility, have offered no excuses for your actions, and have no history of disciplinary action,” the reprimand notes.
The reprimand by the TBJC follows a December 2023 request by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) for the state body to investigate Skahan.
Taylor additionally requested the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility (TBPR) investigate Mulroy over his alleged collaboration with Skahan during the process that led to Anderson’s release. The state senator also noted Mulroy did not challenge Skahan’s decision to vacate the sentence of a convicted double murderer last May.
After raising the potential significance of Mulroy’s appointment of Skahan’s brother “to serve as Special Assistant for Post Convictions,” Taylor wrote in his December 2023 letter to the TBPR, “It appears all parties were in cahoots knowing they would be successful if no one appeals their ‘creative’ actions.”
He continued, “This also raises the question as to whether there was improper ex parte collusion between the Judge and the District Attorney’s office,” and charged that the collaboration between Skahan and Mulroy “definitely has the appearance of impropriety.”
– – –
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].
