In 2014, Nashville voters chose a new district attorney for the first time in nearly half a century. Tom Shriver took the job in 1966 and held it for two decades before Torry Johnson was appointed to succeed him. Johnson went on to serve three eight-year terms. Now, Glenn Funk — who won the 2014 race in commanding fashion — has been the city’s top prosecutor for nearly eight years. He’s seeking reelection in a contested race this fall. His opponents: former federal prosecutor Sara Beth Myers and former assistant district attorney Danielle Nellis.
Funk, a longtime defense attorney before becoming DA, has implemented reforms like the office’s highly active Conviction Review Unit and a policy of not prosecuting possession of small amounts of marijuana. He tells the Scene that the office’s achievements have been “significant.”
“We’ve seen local incarceration rates cut by over half,” says Funk, “while at the same time we’ve maintained well over a 90 percent conviction rate on violent crimes like murder, aggravated robbery, rape and gun charges.”
Myers, who launched her campaign last month, told the Scene then that her experience as a local, state and federal prosecutor made her “the best-qualified person in this moment for the city.” She cast Funk as a leader who has been focused on “making headlines instead of change.” Those headlines came when Funk announced his marijuana policy and later declared that his office would not enforce new laws from the legislature aimed at abortion rights, transgender people or COVID restrictions. Myers criticized his tactics, warning that such public stances could draw the ire of the legislature. For his part, Funk tells the Scene that his office’s resources will be focused on violent crime and that “it is important for public officials to insert common sense into the public discourse regarding issues that affect criminal justice.”
Myers said her energy as DA would be more focused on strategies to prevent crime than reforming how the system responds to it. She envisions breaking up the DA’s office into precincts, much like the police department, and holding listening sessions throughout the community. She also touted her experience getting a jury to convict law enforcement officers for misconduct, contrasting it with Funk’s decision to agree to a plea deal with former Metro Police Officer Andrew Delke for the fatal 2018 shooting of Daniel Hambrick.
“I’ve done it multiple times,” she said. “And that is because nobody is above the law, and I am not afraid of a jury trial.”
Nellis, who worked as a prosecutor under Funk from 2014 to 2018, says, “Our current system is bad for all people.”
“There’s little to no effort right now to address the root causes, systemic failures of the system, in order to break the cycle of people just coming in and out of the criminal justice system, of coming into contact with it,” Nellis says.
One of her ideas? Expanding restorative justice programs beyond youth, in part through the creation of neighborhood courts where people who commit nonviolent misdemeanors can be diverted — and receive sentences not of incarceration but of work to repair the harm done and address the reasons they committed the crime. Nellis’ campaign materials emphasize the “crisis” of violent crime in the city and the need to focus on prevention strategies.
