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

District Attorney Glenn Funk said Wednesday he wants to vacate a death sentence handed down 32 years ago because of prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias during the 1987 trial.

Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, 68, is scheduled to be executed April 16. If this agreement is approved, the execution would be canceled and Abdur'Rahman would remain in prison for the rest of his life.

Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins said he would consider Funk’s offer and make a decision Thursday.

Funk's deal is a remarkable break for Abdur'Rahman's defense team after decades of legal fights in state and federal courts. Lawyers have repeatedly criticized lead prosecutor John Zimmerman for his conduct during the trial and jury selection.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Brad 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.

Courts have occasionally been sympathetic, but they left the verdict and the death sentence in place.

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 Patrick Daniels and wounded Norma Jean 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 defense attorneys' claims of racial bias and misconduct during the trial were valid.

Ultimately, Funk found, that behavior had tainted the case.

"Overt racial bias has no place in the justice system," Funk said. "Further, and most importantly, the pursuit of justice is incompatible with deception. Prosecutors must never be dishonest to or mislead defense counsel, courts or juries."

'I think I witnessed history'

Abdur'Rahman sat quietly in court while Funk proposed an agreement that would spare him from the death penalty. MacLean, his attorney, signed the agreement before it was submitted to Watkins.

"This case represents a tragedy on many levels. The death of Mr. Daniels and the trauma done to Mrs. Norman and her daughters, as well as other family members, cannot be mitigated," MacLean said after the hearing Wednesday.

"The purpose of today's hearing was to address another serious trauma — a trauma to our system of justice."

MacLean called Zimmerman a "rogue prosecutor" who "trampled the protections afforded by our state and federal constitutions." He thanked Funk for his "willingness to address constitutional violations and correct fundamental errors."

"It takes moral courage to create 32-year-old wrong," MacLean said. "It takes political courage to correct the wrongs for which you are not responsible."

After the hearing, Funk declined to comment while the deal is under consideration.

Defense attorney Ed Yarbrough, who has prosecuted and defended capital cases, was in court Wednesday on another matter and watched Abdur'Rahman's hearing.

"I think I witnessed history," said Yarbrough, a former U.S. attorney. "That was remarkable, but I think (Funk) did the right thing.

"It's the way the system should work."

U.S. Supreme Court ruling revived longstanding defense argument

Abdur'Rahman's attorneys had asked for a new trial in the case based on a longstanding argument that Zimmerman illegally discriminated against black people during jury selection and acted improperly during the trial.

Watkins agreed to consider the argument now, 32 years after the trial, in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that re-opened a Georgia case based on racial discrimination during jury selection.

In court documents, Abdur'Rahman's attorneys cited examples to support their assertion, including the fact that Zimmerman blocked the inclusion of a black pastor who was college educated because he seemed "uneducated" and lacked "communication skills."

Because Abdur'Rahman's case was revived in a Nashville trial court, it opened the door for Funk to handle the case, rather than the state attorney general's office.

He sat alone at the prosecution's table on Wednesday.

Funk has not sought the death penalty since taking office in 2014. He has said he is personally against capital punishment, although he hasn't ruled out the possibility of using the penalty as a prosecutor.

Funk also has criticized Zimmerman, who is now a Rutherford County prosecutor.

In a 2015 memo, Funk said Zimmerman "encouraged unethical and illegal conduct" during a 2015 lecture to other lawyers. Funk said Zimmerman "gave blatant advice to use race in jury selection."

Zimmerman has courted controversy in Rutherford County as well. He was the lead prosecutor in the Operation Candy Crush investigation, during which authorities padlocked multiple convenience stores, most of them owned by minorities.

Charges against the store owners were eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence that the stores were selling illegal goods.

Zimmerman and Rutherford County District Attorney Jennings Jones did not respond to messages left with their office Wednesday.

Source: The Tennessean, Adam Tamburin, August 28, 2019

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