[ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Members of the General Assembly, its my honor to present dill bill bill lee, governor of the state of tennessee. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Lieutenant governor mcnacnally, speaker pro tiem dunn. Members of the 111th General Assembly, constitutional officers, justices, fellow tennesseeans. Its an honor to be before you once again tonight. Truly an honor. Before i begin, speaker sexton, let me offer a special congratulations to you on your election as our new speaker. [ applause ] i look forward to working with you not only in this session but if the years ahead as we strive to make tennessee a leader in this country. Last year i stood before you on this podiumnewly inaugurated add the 50 governor of tennessee, and i had no idea what i was getting myself into. Its been a rewarding year. Far more rewarding than i could have ever imagined. To serve tennesseeans, to help m
Nashville Tennessean
Gov. Bill Lee is nearing a victory on his long-anticipated criminal justice reform agenda, legislation that seeks to curb the number of nonviolent people returning to prison and give inmates being released a better chance at succeeding.
It s a policy goal the Republican governor has discussed since he was campaigning for office, and an issue he has personally cared about for two decades, when he began volunteering with a prison ministry.
But it s a proposal Lee and his administration have had to work harder to sell to conservative legislators conditioned to support a tough on crime stance. Passing these major criminal justice reform bills in Tennessee has been a two-year effort, in part slowed by the pandemic, to convince more Republicans to embrace a smart on crime approach, as Lee and others in the movement describe the strategy.
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The state Supreme Court is considering a case that could pave the way for nearly 200 people to be released from prison for crimes they committed as juveniles.
Tennessee has some of the harshest sentencing for minors who are convicted of murder in adult court.
Tyshon Booker was 16 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing someone during a botched robbery in Knoxville.
He was convicted of first-degree murder. Under Tennessee law, that means he has to serve at least 51 years of a life sentence, even though he committed the crime as a juvenile. Attorney David Esquivel says that goes against recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, which say teens must have a “meaningful opportunity” for life after prison.
Nashville Tennessean
Tennessee s criminal justice system increasingly relies on life sentences, a new analysis shows, a phenomenon straining the state s prisons and budget.
The population of so-called lifers in Tennessee prisons has jumped by 87% since 1970, according to the report released Wednesday by Washington D.C. nonprofit The Sentencing Project. An expert on Tennessee s sentencing laws said explosive growth of that group is just the beginning of an impending trend.
More than half of the people serving life sentences in Tennessee prisons are Black, the report found, which the authors say disproportionately harms minority communities as a whole.
Swelling prison rosters have done little to reduce crime, the report found, using language echoing Gov. Bill Lee s Criminal Justice Investment Task Force. Lee s task force released its own report in 2019, showing the draconian sentencing that disproportionately affects Black residents hadn t made Tennessee any safer.