NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee’s attorney general wants the state Supreme Court to fast-track his office’s appeal of a black inmate’s commuted death sentence, a case that has gained attention after concerns were raised that racism tainted his jury selection pool and prompted his pending execution to be converted to life in prison.
In a filing this week, Attorney General Herbert Slatery contended that the Supreme Court should take over the case and bypass a lower appeals court because it is “of unusual public importance” after he said a jury’s verdict was “so easily nullified and subverted.”
If the agreement with prosecutors to drop this death sentence ends up standing, Slatery contended that final judgments in other cases would not be safe from being changed merely because the parties and the court agree to do so.
“In the absence of guidance from this Court, the practice of modifying final judgments threatens to undermine the public’s trust in the integrity of the criminal justice system,” Slatery wrote to the high court Wednesday.
Slatery filed his original appeal last week, arguing that the recent decision of a Davidson County judge to reduce inmate Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman’s (ah-BOO’-ah-LEE’) (AHB’-dur-RAK’-mahn) death sentence circumvented certain legal procedures.