Memphis, Tennessee has been plagued by violent crime for decades, though there has been a significant decrease in the past three years. That's in part due to President Trump's Memphis Safe Task Force, which has brought National Guard members and hundreds of federal agents to the city. After a record-high 400 homicides in 2023, murders have dropped by more than 50%.
Still, there's still plenty of violence in some sections of the city, and like most places, a small number of repeat offenders are responsible for an outsized portion of the city's crime. When those individuals show up in court, though, the odds of them actually being sent to prison are much lower than you'd expect.
The watchdog group Memphis Crime Beat sent volunteers into the Shelby County Courthouse last December to track the outcomes of every felony case on the docket, and what they found is completely bonkers.
According to their calculations, 47% of the convictions in Shelby County criminal court in December resulted in a suspended sentence or diversion, which means instead of a prison sentence, they got a version of probation. They have to follow certain conditions, and as long as they do, they walk free.
About 25% of those cases involved violent felony offenses, including an eight-year suspended sentence for Cameron Wheeler, who took a deal and pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Wheeler was accused of shooting at a group of people sitting outside an apartment complex, though thankfully he missed his intended targets.
This wasn't Wheeler's first violent offense. In 2019 he received just three years in prison for his role in a violent carjacking where a woman was dragged about 100 yards. Despite his history, Wheeler was given a "Get Out of Jail Free" card by the local district attorney.
Of the 514 felony cases in Shelby County's courtrooms last December, only 84 resulted in a sentence that involved prison time. 144 cases were dropped altogether, 178 defendants received a suspended sentence and/or probation, 63 were blessed with a pre-trial diversion allowing them to wipe their record clean if they stay out of trouble, and 45 others were sentenced to time served.
To make matters even worse, of the 84 defendants who were sentenced to prison for their felony offenses, 49% were given sentences of less than a year.
Politically speaking, Memphis, Tennessee is a bright blue dot in a sea of red, and the Democratic politicians representing the city in the legislature and Congress are some of the most vocal proponents of gun control in the entire state. Remember Justin Pearson? The Memphis state representative was expelled from the state House after spearheading a chaotic protest on the House floor to demand gun bans and more after the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, was re-elected by Memphis voters, and is now challenging incumbent Democrat congressman Steve Cohen in the hopes of taking his anti-gun extremism to Washington, D.C.
Pearson's campaign website contains no mention of the phrase "violent crime", but it is chock-full of restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms he'd like to enact, including "red flag" laws, a ban on shipping unfinished frames or receivers, and requiring gun owners to be subjected to waiting periods and "firearm education" before they can purchase a gun.
Even if Pearson managed to enact those ideas into law, violent criminals are going to ignore each and every one. And if they are caught committing a violent crime, there's a good chance that the local D.A. will offer them a plea deal that returns them to the streets with little more than a slap on the wrist.
The Republican-controlled legislature in Tennessee is considering a bill that would create a presumption of prison time instead of probation for those convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm. That might help, but there's nothing to prevent the D.A. from structuring a deal so that any aggravated assault charge is dropped in lieu of a guilty plea to lesser charges. Judges could also essentially ignore that presumption and hand down a light sentence if they so choose.
Honestly, the one saving grace for the city of Graceland is that violent crime is dropping significantly; not because of the D.A.'s soft-on-crime policies but in spite of them. I don't know how long that trend will hold, but Memphis residents should hope and pray that Trump's Memphis Safe Task Force isn't disbanded anytime soon.
