Judge approves deal to remove Tennessee inmate from death row months before execution date

Tennessee inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman will leave death row months before his scheduled execution because of a deal brokered by the Nashville district attorney.

Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins approved the deal Friday, allowing Abdur'Rahman, 68, to spend the rest of his life in prison instead of being put to death on April 16.

The move cements a dramatic win for Abdur'Rahman and his attorneys, who had long argued that the racial bias and misconduct of a "rogue prosecutor" had tainted his 1987 murder trial.

District Attorney Glenn Funk, who took office in 2014, agreed. He proposed the deal that nullified Abdur'Rahman's death sentence in court on Wednesday. Defense attorney Brad MacLean signed the deal.

Multiple life sentences will remain in place for the stabbings that killed Patrick Daniels and wounded Norma Jean Norman in 1986.

RELATED | Tennessee: Prosecutor wants to drop man’s death sentence months ahead of execution; judge to consider

Watkins agreed to the deal following a hearing on lead prosecutor John Zimmerman's behavior during jury selection in 1987, when he blocked three black members of the jury pool. It is unconstitutional for prosecutors to block potential jurors based on their race.

The judge's ruling caps decades of legal challenges in state and federal courts.

Abdur'Rahman's defense team has criticized Zimmerman for his conduct during throughout the case. Courts have occasionally been sympathetic, but they left the verdict and the death sentence in place.

On Wednesday, MacLean said Zimmerman "engaged in a pervasive pattern of suppression and deception" during Abdur'Rahman's trial.

MacLean accused Zimmerman of telling "blatant lies" throughout his handling of the case, saying he misrepresented key facets of the case to the defense team and withheld others.

Speaking in court Wednesday, Funk said there was no question that Abdur'Rahman, also known as James L. Jones Jr., was guilty. He recounted gruesome details of the Nashville stabbings that killed Daniels and wounded Norman.

He recalled how Norman's daughters had listened to the attack from a back bedroom before their mother crawled in, a butcher knife still lodged in her back. On Wednesday, Norman's daughters wept quietly in the front row.

But Funk said the prosecution was marred by "overt racial bias" and dishonesty.

"The pursuit of justice is incompatible with deception," Funk said in court Wednesday. "Prosecutors must never be dishonest to or mislead defense counsel, courts or juries."

Zimmerman now works as a Rutherford County prosecutor. He did not respond to a message left with his office requesting comment.

Source: tennessean.com, Adam Tamburin, August 30, 2019

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