Top Tennessee officials disagree on whether "truth-in-sentencing" laws are effective, but several Memphis families must be wondering this week if their loved one might be alive if a recent law forcing perpetrators of especially violent crimes to serve all or more of their sentences had been in effect earlier.
The state's second largest city has been roiled over the past week by five murders allegedly committed by two men who were released from prison before their full terms were up.
Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, allowed the "truth-in-sentencing" measure to become law without signing it earlier this year. Before that, in a letter to the speakers of both state houses, he said [d]ata does not support the basic premise of the legislation. Similar legislation has been enacted before and resulted in significant operational and financial strain, with no reduction in crime."
Those two speakers, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, came to Chattanooga for a ceremonial signing of the bill in June.
"When you travel the state and you talk to a lot of people and you ask them what their No. 1 issue is and what we can do to help, tougher sentencing is the one thing they talk about," Sexton said.
Two Memphis Democrats, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson and Mayor Jim Strickland, had supported the legislation, and both spoke out after the recent murders.
"We have a lot of people in our communities that are honestly afraid of what's going on in these streets, " Parkinson said following the slaying of school teacher Eliza Fletcher, "and we needed some tough on crime legislation to make sure we incarcerate the right people and create alternatives for those committing other crimes."
"If [the suspect allegedly involved in four murders] served his full three-year sentence," Strickland said, "he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive."
The truth is we can never know whether serving the rest of their sentences would have been a deterrent for either of the suspects, but getting out early apparently didn't alter their behavior for the good, either.
As with so many eventualities in life, it depends on the individual. For some, either serving their entire terms or getting out sooner may help. With others, neither would.
But you couldn't blame the families of the victims, who know that Cleotha Abston served only 85% of his 24-year sentence for aggravated kidnapping in 2000 before being arrested in Fletcher's murder and that Ezekiel Kelly served only 11 months of his three-year sentence on an attempted murder charge that was plea-bargained down to aggravated assault before being charged in a spree that left four dead, included seven shootings and a carjacking, and had eight crime scenes.
Strickland, in May, said he hoped the "truth-in-sentencing" legislation especially might deter those considering gun crimes.
"I want the young person, if they have a gun, to think for a second before they pull that trigger," he told Action News 5. "Because if there's a swift, severe punishment, they are more likely to have second thoughts in doing it."
Strickland said 25% of people convicted of aggravated assault in Shelby County in 2021 received only probation. Of those who received jail sentences, including one who stabbed a co-worker, one who shot someone in the stomach and one who committed a drive-by shooting, 42% served less than 11 months.
The "truth-in-sentencing" law that went into effect July 1 requires people convicted of the most violent offenses -- including first- and second-degree murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and carjacking -- to serve 100% of their sentences.
Meanwhile, people convicted of 20 lower-level violent crimes can earn credits in prison -- through the likes of drug treatment or job training -- to reduce their sentence from 100% to 85% of time served. Among those crimes are aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, strangulation and voluntary manslaughter.
Exactly how much more each of the two Memphis suspects would have served under the new law is unclear.
New Hamilton County District Attorney General Coty Wamp said during her campaign that she planned to prosecute more violent crime, would not negotiate for lesser charges for individuals charge with violent offenses such as murder and could implement a violent crime unit by the end of this year.
"I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again," she said in June, "put a gun in your hand with the intent to harm this community, and my office will seek the harshest punishment that the law allows. You will not receive a break. You will not receive probation. You will go to prison."
As we noted above, redemption depends on the individual involved, but for the most part we like the idea of full or nearly full sentences for those committing the most violent crimes, with limited credit available in prison, and of lesser sentences and alternatives for perpetrators of nonviolent crime.
However, the accused suspects in the Memphis cases, it seems to us, don't deserve any such breaks.