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With 10 months before voters choose the next Shelby County District Attorney, the push to unseat Republican incumbent Amy Weirich heated up Wednesday with the launch of what organizers call a public education campaign about the prosecutor’s controversial record.
A handful of canvassers handed fliers to the dozens queuing to get inside the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center on Poplar Wednesday morning, as a mobile digital billboard labeling Weirich a “Repeat Offender” circled the center. The campaign is coordinated by Memphis Watch, a newly formed organization that doesn’t have a web presence and does not appear to be led by Memphians.
One of the billboard panels reads: The Tennessee Supreme Court on Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich’s behavior in a murder prosecution: “Flagrant violation,” “off limits to any conscientious prosecutor,” “not at all clear why any prosecutor would venture into this forbidden territory.” The partial quotes were taken from a 2014 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling that excoriated Weirich for her conduct during the 2009 high-profile murder trial of Noura Jackson. The court would later vacate Jackson’s conviction; she was released after spending 11 years in prison.
The billboard’s messages are a condensed version of AmyWeirichFiles.com, which offers a blistering assessment of Weirich’s actions, some of which have drawn intense scrutiny, criticism and in one instance, a reprimand from the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility days before she was to face an examination of her behavior during Jackson’s trial.
Across the country, advocacy organizations and activists are calling for prosecutorial reform, a movement that’s gotten a boost from philanthropists including George Soros, who has spent millions on district attorney races in recent years in an effort to reimagine the country’s criminal justice system.
The campaign comes at the same time that Memphis is experiencing a surge in gun crime, including Sunday’s off-campus killing of a Rhodes College student and last month’s Collierville Kroger shooting that left the shooter and a victim dead and more than a dozen others injured. These incidents and the resulting flurry of news coverage may make residents more receptive to Weirich’s tough-on-crime stance; research has shown that media coverage of crime can lead to increased public support for punitive criminal justice policy.
Outside the justice center Wednesday morning, canvasser Victoria Terry with the progressive nonprofit Memphis For All shared specific criticism about Weirich’s record with passersby.
“When she should do DNA testing, she doesn’t,” Terry said. “She tries kids as adults all the time.”
“There’s another election coming up. So we’re doing everything we can to put somebody better in office, someone who actually cares about our community.”
Weirich’s office has opposed DNA testing in the case of death row inmate Pervis Payne and in the case of Sedley Alley, who was executed in 2006. She has also transferred dozens of children accused of violent crimes, most of whom are Black, to adult court where they face stiffer penalties, a practice she defended as recently as Sept. 28, when the DA’s website listed a detailed explanation for each of the 25 cases her office has transferred to adult court this year.
In an email, Larry Buser, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that “it would be inappropriate for me to comment on campaign issues.”
Intense outside attention to this local DA race is to be expected, said Cardell Orrin, executive director for Stand for Children Tennessee and a community advocate.
“I think it’s reflective of what we’ve been hearing for quite some time from local and national groups of a real concern about the egregious violations that have occurred from Weirich and her office during her tenure,” Orrin said. He said he was aware of Wednesday’s campaign but Stand was not involved.
“We’ve also heard from other national organizations that have said, in context of what’s happening around the country and in other (district attorneys’) offices, you have a problem with your DA that can hopefully be solved.”
“We definitely have to look to see if there’s an alternative.” In the past, Stand has endorsed candidates for office and expects to do so in the DA’s race.
Orrin is also a part of Memphis Nonprofits Demand Action, which graded Weirich and other elected officials on progressive criminal justice policy issues following a number of local protests sparked last summer by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Weirich received a D for her failure to drop charges against peaceful participants arrested in demonstrations and an F for not investigating accusations of police misconduct during those protests.
