As Republican state Sen. Janice Bowling explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, a person in Tennessee who is convicted of first-degree murder faces three possible sentences: life with the possibility of parole, life without the possibility of parole or death. But because of an extraordinarily harsh sentencing law, a person sentenced to life with the possibility of parole is not eligible to even be considered for release until they have served 51 years in prison.
That's double the national average, Bowling told the committee, and means most people facing the sentence will die before they ever get a chance at parole.
But a bipartisan bill sponsored by Bowling and Democratic state Rep. London Lamar would change that. Their bill would reduce the amount of time a person sentenced to life must serve before becoming eligible for parole — from 51 years to 25. That would revert Tennessee's law back to the way it was before sentencing laws changed in the wake of the federal government's 1994 Crime Bill, which was authored by then-Sen. Joe Biden and signed by then-President Bill Clinton.
The reform would not have any effect on Tennessee's death penalty or its life-without-the-possibility-of-parole sentence.
The committee advanced the bill Wednesday afternoon with seven senators voting for it. Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) asked to be recorded as "present not voting" while Sen. Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) voted against the bill.
On the Senate side, the bill now goes on to the Calendar Committee to be scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor. It's still awaiting action in the House.
Tennessee's harsh life sentence gained more notoriety because of the case of Cyntoia Brown, who was released in 2019 after then-Gov. Bill Haslam granted her clemency. She was one of many people in Tennessee who received the 51-year life sentence when they were still young.
“Over half of the individuals with a 51-year life sentence were 25 years or younger when they received that sentence," Bowling told the committee. "Individuals paroled on a life sentence under our old life sentence of 25 years, as well as those in other states who are now allowed to have parole after 25 years, have the lowest rates of recidivism.”
Two witnesses were on hand to speak to the committee Wednesday. The first was Preston Shipp, senior policy counsel for Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.
Shipp was previously a prosecutor in the attorney general's office and noted that he had a hand in imposing that sentence in hundreds of cases. But he also had the experience of teaching women incarcerated at the prison formerly known as the Tennessee Prison for Women through Lipscomb University's LIFE program
"What I saw there at the prison, in my classroom, was people who had invested heavily in rehabilitation who were just waiting to prove that they could do better and be better," Shipp said. "They just didn’t have an opportunity to show that to anybody because they wouldn’t be parole-eligible until they served 51 years."
Before its vote, the committee also heard from Rahim Buford, the director of Unheard Voices Outreach and the director of bail operations for Nashville Community Bail Fund. Buford was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1990 — before he was 20 years old.
“For 26 years, I was incarcerated in seven different prisons throughout the state of Tennessee," Buford said. "I’ve spent the majority of my life in prison. While I was confined, I took advantage of every opportunity available to me from a rehabilitative perspective. I went before the board of parole three times and was finally paroled in 2015. I will be on parole for the rest of my life.”
While Buford was incarcerated, his sister was murdered. He knew the pain of violent loss, he told the committee.
“I’m here because I need you to understand that had I been convicted five years later, I would never have this opportunity to speak to you, this opportunity to demonstrate that some people in prison change, some people in prison over years and decades reform and transform," he said. "There are 1,515 individuals just like me who were 25 years and under at the time they committed an offense.”
Later, he added: “I encourage you to believe in second chances and to see that I am not special — perhaps lucky, but no more deserving than anyone else who lives in a prison today with a life sentence.”
