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Thread: James Lee Jones aka Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman - Tennessee

  1. #41
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    None. Zero. Zilch.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  2. #42
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Documentary On Tennessee Death Row Inmate Premiering

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A documentary film about Tennessee death row inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman will premiere on the day he was scheduled to be executed before the Tennessee Supreme Court granted a stay in December.

    Abdur'Rahman (AHB'-dur-RAK'-mahn) was sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels. Police said Daniels and Norma Jean Norman were bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife at Norman's home.

    Abdur'Rahman said he was trying to cleanse the Nashville community of drug dealers who sold to children. Co-defendant Devalle Miller testified against Abdur'Rahman, although Abdur-Rahman's attorneys have since argued that blood evidence at the scene pointed to Miller as the true assailant.

    “You Don't Know Me ” explores Abdur'Rahman's trial and the regrets of his attorney who blames himself for mounting a poor defense, according to a news release about the film. It will premiere April 16 at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre.

    “We felt it was time to take Abu-Ali’s story out of the justice system, where legal technicalities often override common sense and truth, and share it directly with a wide audience,” film director Jon Kent said in a news release. “We believe any fair-minded person who sees this film, no matter his or her stance on capital punishment, will recognize the gross injustice and downright absurdity of putting this man to death.”

    Abdur'Rahman, 69, has been on death row for 32 years and has now seen five execution dates come and go as the courts have decided his various legal challenges. In August, a judge resentenced Abdur'Rahman to life in prison after he raised claims that racism tainted the jury selection process, but before that order could become final Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery appealed. In a statement announcing the appeal, Slatery dismissed the claims of Abdur'Rahman's attorneys and supporters.

    “Over the last 30 years Mr. Abdur’Rahman has repeatedly raised the same issues ... all of which were thoroughly litigated and rejected in the state courts and on federal review through the United States Supreme Court,” a news release from Slatery said.

    Abdur'Rahman's latest execution date is on hold until the appeal of the resentencing order can be heard.

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/ar...e-15022137.php
    Last edited by Bobsicles; 02-01-2020 at 08:17 PM. Reason: Forgot to post link

  3. #43
    Senior Member Frequent Poster NanduDas's Avatar
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    Hearing date set for Tennessee inmate spared execution

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Oral arguments are set for June 9 in the case of a Tennessee inmate who was spared execution after a judge agreed to resentence him due to his claim that racism tainted the jury selection at his trial.

    State officials will argue in front of the Court of Criminal Appeals that the death sentence should be reinstated for Abu-Ali Abdur-Rahman.

    Last August, a Nashville judge approved an agreement between Abu-Ali Abdur-Rahman and Nashville’s district attorney to resentence Abdur’Rahman to life in prison.

    Abdur’Rahman had been scheduled to be executed in April. Abdur’Rahman was sentenced to die for the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels.

    https://www.wkrn.com/news/june-9-hea...red-execution/
    Last edited by NanduDas; 06-02-2020 at 08:45 PM.
    "The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer." -Theodore Roosevelt

  4. #44
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Let’s hope they do the right thing and reinstate. I am so tired of these fartknockers playing the race card
    Last edited by Bobsicles; 06-03-2020 at 05:53 AM.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  5. #45
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Court Examines Resentencing Based on Claim of Racism

    The fate of a black death row inmate in Tennessee, whose sentence was reduced to life in prison over concerns about racism at his trial, is up in the air after the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday heard an appeal of the sentence reduction.

    Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman was sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels. He was scheduled to be executed in April, but last fall a judge resentenced him based on claims that prosecutors had illegally excluded African Americans from the jury pool.

    Abdur'Rahman filed to reopen his case in 2016, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a different black death row inmate in Georgia, finding prosecutors had illegally excluded African Americans from the all-white jury that determined Timothy Foster’s fate.

    In Abdur'Rahman's case, prosecutors’ notes from his trial showed they treated blacks in the jury pool differently from whites, according to court records. For example, prosecutors told the judge they were excluding a black a college educated preacher because he appeared uneducated and uncommunicative, while white jurors who truly were uneducated were allowed to serve.

    Abdur’Rahman’s attorneys have also pointed to a panel at a Tennessee Attorney General's Conference where John Zimmerman, the attorney who prosecuted Abdur'Rahman's case, explicitly mentioned using race in jury selection. Zimmerman described seeking black jurors for a case where the defendants were Hispanic because "all blacks hate Mexicans," according to court records.

    Current Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk was among those who denounced Zimmerman's comments. When Abdur'Rahman asked to reopen his case, Funk decided to negotiate rather than fight. The agreement reached would reduce Abdur'Rahman's sentence to a life, and it would be served consecutively with 2 other life sentences, so there would be no possibility he would leave prison. In return, Abdur’Rahman agreed to give up any further legal challenges.

    The trial court judge approved the order in August but the Tennessee Attorney General's Office appealed. At the Tuesday hearing, Deputy Attorney General Zachary Hinkle argued that the trial court judge did not have the authority to modify Abdur'Rahman's sentence based merely on an agreement between the two parties. There should have been a petition, a hearing and a review, Hinkle said. And the court should have decided whether the U.S. Supreme Court's Georgia case creates a new and retroactive law that could then be applied to Abdur'Rahman's case.

    Those steps were short-circuited when the judge accepted the agreement between prosecutors and Abdur'Rahman, Hinkle said, arguing the judge's order approving the agreement should be vacated.

    Judge Tommy Woodall said it “appears that the trial court skipped a step.” The court should have made a finding that Abdur'Rahman was entitled to relief, vacated his sentences and then considered his agreement with prosecutors.

    “Some might see it as form over substance,” he said. “I see it as the steps that have to be taken.”

    David Esquivel, representing Abdur'Rahman, conceded there was some “blurring” of the separate steps. If the court is concerned about that, he said, they could send the case back to the trial court with directions to redo the proceedings.

    But Esquivel also argued that the attorney general's office does not have the right to appeal the agreement made by the district attorney because both the attorney general and the district attorney represent the same party, the state.

    “A party cannot ask one lawyer to enter an agreement in the trial court and then ask a different lawyer to upend that agreement on appeal,” Esquivel argued. “No party can do that, not even the state.”

    (source: New York Times)
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  6. #46
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Remanded to the Post-Conviction Court by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/tenness...a-r3-pd-0.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  7. #47
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    Tennessee death row case in Nashville court after Funk, Slatery tangle on appeal

    By Mariah Timms
    The Nashville Tennessean

    A Tennessee death row inmate trying to reverse a death sentence is expected back in court in Nashville on Tuesday.

    Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to death in the 1986 stabbing attack that killed Patrick Daniels.

    Abdur'Rahman's legal team argued his sentence should be reversed because prosecutors illegally kept Black residents from serving on the jury.

    Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins agreed to vacate Abdur'Rahman's death sentence in August 2019 after Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk proposed a deal that reduced his execution sentence to three life sentences.

    But Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III appealed, saying the case was reconsidered improperly. Slatery's team argued Watkins accepted the deal without following the full process required for such a ruling.

    It worked.

    Appeals court judges Timothy L. Easter and Robert L. Holloway Jr. agreed with the attorney general's office, saying Watkins had erred on a procedural level by approving the deal without first completing the necessary steps to find a basis for post-conviction relief.

    The case was novel in part because it put Funk and Slatery, who both act with the authority of the state in their respective capacities, on opposite sides of the issue.

    That conflict may be sharpening. A bill sits on Gov. Bill Lee's desk — still unsigned, as of Monday afternoon — that would allow the attorney general to petition the state Supreme Court to install a temporary district attorney on cases where the local elected prosecutor "peremptorily and categorically refuses" to bring charges against anyone under a specific law.

    It would apply to any district attorney in the state, but lawmakers made it clear during a recent special legislative session that recent decisions by Funk deeply impacted their desire to pass the bill.

    Under the deal Watkins approved, Abdur’Rahman agreed to drop his post-conviction claim in exchange for a lesser sentence.

    But the appellate court found Watkins could not approve such a deal without ruling on the central claim that brought the matter to court in the first place.

    The appellate decision sent the case back down to the Nashville courts.

    He is expected in Watkins' courtroom at 9 a.m. Tuesday for a motion hearing.

    Abdur'Rahman's execution had been scheduled to take place April 16, 2020, but the Tennessee Supreme Court delayed it indefinitely to allow the appeals court time to consider the case.

    Tennessee resumed executions in 2018 after a long lull.

    Although executions in 2020 were stayed due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, the high court last week set new dates in several cases for next year.

    https://eu.tennessean.com/story/news...rt/6332623001/

  8. #48
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    After lawyers tangle on appeal, judge throws out Nashville man's death sentence

    By Mariah Timms
    The Nashville Tennessean

    Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman's sentence to three life sentences was a relief.

    Abdur’Rahman, 71, entered guilty pleas to three high-level charges Tuesday in an agreement with the district attorney's office to take the death penalty off the table.

    It's been a long time coming.

    He was previously convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to death in the 1986 stabbing attack that killed Patrick Daniels.

    The brutal armed robbery, by Abdur’Rahman and an associate, left a Nashville woman bound, stabbed in the back, drifting in and out of consciousness until the early morning when she crawled to her children's room to have them call for help.

    But in the years after his conviction, questions rose up about whether the trial that left him on death row for more than 30 years was fair.

    Abdur'Rahman's legal team argued his sentence should be reversed because prosecutors illegally kept Black residents from serving on the jury.

    Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins agreed to vacate Abdur'Rahman's death sentence in August 2019 after Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk proposed a deal that reduced his execution sentence to three life sentences.

    Then, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III appealed, saying the case was reconsidered improperly. Slatery's team argued Watkins accepted the deal without following the full process required for such a ruling.

    It worked.

    Appeals court judges Timothy L. Easter and Robert L. Holloway Jr. agreed with the attorney general's office, saying Watkins had erred on a procedural level by approving the deal without first completing the necessary steps to find a basis for post-conviction relief.

    The case returned to Nashville on Tuesday morning for one more try before Watkins.

    Watkins vacated the previous convictions on the grounds of clear racial discrimination under U.S. Supreme Court rulings and accepted Abdur'Rahman's new plea.

    "The state does have an interest in the finality of convictions and sentences," Funk told the court Tuesday. "That is outweighed by interest of justice, and in some situations by recognition of the sanctity of human life."

    A review of the original proceedings showed a "smoking gun of racial bias," he said.

    Abdur'Rahman agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences, on top of his ongoing federal life sentence.

    "There's a mixture of emotions," Phyllis Hildreth, an American Baptist College professor and member of the Community Oversight Board, said Tuesday. She watched the proceedings with a small group of activists who pushed for years to overturn the original conviction.

    "We should not have to be here today," she said. "We can never undo the damage that has been done — not only to the lives affected, but to the trust of the people and systems that frequently aren't and continue to be unjust, particularly in matters of racial prejudice."

    Earlier proceedings in the case were novel in part because they put Funk and Slatery, who both act with the authority of the state in their respective capacities, on opposite sides of the issue.

    That conflict may be sharpening.

    A bill sits on Gov. Bill Lee's desk — still unsigned, as of Tuesday morning — that would allow the attorney general to petition the state Supreme Court to install a temporary district attorney on cases where the local elected prosecutor "peremptorily and categorically refuses" to bring charges against anyone under a specific law.

    It would apply to any district attorney in the state, but lawmakers made it clear during a recent special legislative session that recent decisions by Funk deeply impacted their desire to pass the bill.

    Under the previous deal Watkins approved in 2019, Abdur’Rahman agreed to drop his post-conviction claim in exchange for a lesser sentence.

    But the appellate court found Watkins could not approve such a deal without ruling on the central claim that brought the matter to court in the first place.

    The appellate decision sent the case back down to the Nashville courts.

    Abdur'Rahman's execution had been scheduled to take place April 16, 2020, but the Tennessee Supreme Court delayed it indefinitely to allow the appeals court time to consider the case.

    He will not return to death row under the new deal.

    Tennessee resumed executions in 2018 after a long lull.

    Although executions in 2020 were stayed due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, the high court last week set new dates in several cases for next yet.

    https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...rt/6332623001/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  9. #49
    Wilso
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    Abu used his black privilege to his benefit.
    Last edited by Wilso; 11-09-2021 at 04:07 PM.

  10. #50
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    It’s a shame that a murderer can avoid punishment just for being black. All White Juries may be controversial but they serve a purpose. A black person is less likely to vote for death against another black person, no matter what the crime is.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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