Bill could let other district attorneys prosecute Shelby County cases
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — State Sen. Brent Taylor is introducing a bill that would allow neighboring District Attorneys to prosecute certain crimes if Shelby County’s district attorney refuses.
It’s the latest in the tug-of-war between Taylor (R-Shelby County) and D.A. Steve Mulroy in an effort to fight crime.
Taylor is sponsoring a bill called the D.A. Second Opinion Act. It would require law enforcement to report certain major criminal investigations to District Attorneys in neighboring counties.
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Neighboring district attorneys could prosecute certain Shelby County crimes if the district attorney refuses to prosecute.
“Either it will give another district attorney an opportunity to look at some crimes that will have a nexus in their judicial district, or it will create an internal pressure in our Shelby County D.A.’s office to say, ‘You know what, I’m probably going to prosecute this because I don’t want a neighboring district attorney to come into Shelby County and prosecute my crimes,'” said Taylor.
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He called it “common sense,” saying, “if you take a criminal who’s committed a crime and you’ve apprehended him and you got them in jail, they can’t commit another crime.”
But Democatic state Rep. Jesse Chism of Memphis says this bill isn’t needed, and is a “huge overreach.”
“It’s a bad bill. I think it has symptoms of being unconstitutional,” Chism said.
Mulroy called it “empty political messaging with no real world effect- a solution in search of a problem.”
Sunday night’s deadly officer-involved shooting in Collierville sparked questions about 30-year-old Antwon Booker, the man killed, and his prior arrest history.
Shelby County Court records show Booker had a sexual battery case against him dropped last year and another felony charge against him dropped in 2018.
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In a statement, Mulroy says Booker failed to show up for his preliminary hearing. The judge dismissed for the defendant’s failure to appear, and his office sent the case to the grand jury for indictment.
Mulroy’s full statement on the case can be found at the end of this story.
Mulroy criticized Taylor for his latest crime bill, and said his efforts would be better spent on other priorities.
“Rather than grabbing headlines with proposals that won’t actually make us safer, Senator Taylor would be better advised to help Shelby County get a local crime lab, provide residential facilities to deal with repeat juvenile offenders, and allow urban areas to opt out of our lax, soft-on-crime gun laws,” Mulroy said.
Taylor said he’s “not picking on anyone. I just want Memphians to be safe.”
Mulroy’s statement on Antwon Booker:
The Antwon Booker case is still active. When the defendant failed to show up for his preliminary hearing, the judge dismissed for the defendant’s failure to appear, and we sent the case to the grand jury for indictment, a routine practice done for years in Shelby County and across Tennessee. (It’s of course now moot because Booker is dead.) The 2018 case was dismissed by my predecessor because the victim failed to show for a hearing and did not respond to repeated attempts at contact. The proposed bill is empty political messaging with no real world effect- a solution in search of a problem. Our office prosecutes over 40,000 cases a year, and doesn’t decline to prosecute without a good reason. Law enforcement currently are already free to notify any DA office they want about offenses, but DAs are only empowered to prosecute crimes occurring inside their jurisdiction. Rather than grabbing headlines with proposals that won’t actually make us safer, Sen. Taylor would be better advised to help Shelby County get a local crime lab, provide residential facilities to deal with repeat juvenile offenders, and allow urban areas to opt out of our lax, soft-on-crime gun laws.
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