Paul Garrett is suing the Metro government and five former Metro police officers over his wrongful conviction and decade-long incarceration for a murder he did not commit. His lawsuit, filed in federal court on Friday and linked below, seeks $18 million in compensation.
Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk disavowed Garrett's conviction in May and asked a court to vacate it. That was based on a stunning report by his office's Conviction Review Unit that determined the office should've known years ago that there was good reason to doubt Garrett was the man responsible for the killing of a Nashville sex worker named Velma Tharpe. Garrett always maintained his innocence, and DNA testing before his conviction excluded him as the source of the DNA found on Tharpe’s body. Â
The CRU's report highlighted misconduct by police and negligence by prosecutors, as well as a refusal to pursue legitimate questions about the case years after Garrett's conviction. An internal report in 2011 detailed myriad problems with the conviction and the detectives involved but led to little action from then-DA Torry Johnson. The lawsuit details the misconduct of the named officers — Roy Dunaway, Jeff West, Dean Haney, David Miller and E.J. Bernard — which included fabrication of a confession and false testimony in court.Â
Shortly after the CRU filed its report in court in May, another man named Calvin Atchison was arrested and charged with Tharpe's murder. In August, a judge vacated Garrett's conviction.
"In short, the evidence in this case tends to exculpate Mr. Garrett as the alleged murderer while inculpating Mr. Atchison who is now indicted for the murder of the listed victim," Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton wrote in her order.Â
What the CRU report and Garrett's lawsuit allege is that police and prosecutors had reason to know that a long, long time ago.Â
