Public defenders and families urge legislative changes, data and retroactivity
Tennessee public defenders and family members described cases where non-killers received longer sentences than perpetrators and called for statutory tweaks, retroactive relief and better data; defenders proposed reclassifying felony murder or narrowing criminal responsibility.
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Patrick Froge, executive director of the Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference, laid out how felony-murder and criminal-responsibility statutes interact with plea bargaining and sentencing, arguing the result can be life sentences for people who did not commit the homicidal act. "When I look at the statute, I'm saying, you know, what is it about this that can lead everybody here to be correct and yet people still feel so aggrieved?" he asked.
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