Two Wrongful Tennessee Convictions Result in Payouts Over $1 Million
An undisclosed settlement with Grundy County on May 22, 2024, added to a $1 million payout that former Tennessee prisoner Adam Braseel had already received for 12 years he spent wrongfully imprisoned. That earlier award from the state Department of the Treasury Board of Claims on June 23, 2023, also marked the second time that year that an exonerated state prisoner picked up a payout, after Nashville’s Metro Council approved a $1.2 million settlement on February 7, 2023, with Paul Shane Garrett for the decade he spent wrongfully imprisoned.
Braseel, then 23, was convicted in Grundy County of the 2006 robbery and murder of Malcolm Burrows and the attempted murder and assault of Rebecca Hill. He remained behind bars for over a dozen years before being exonerated, after the real killer was identified. That man, Kermit Bryson, then fatally shot himself in 2018 while on the run from law enforcement after shooting and killing Grundy County Sheriff’s Dep. Shane Tate.
Following Braseel’s 2021 release, he filed a compensation claim with the state for his time wrongfully spent in prison, leading to the $1 million payout—the maximum amount allowed under state law. “For me to [be] exonerated and now find out that we are compensated, it’s incredibl[y] humbling,” he said, adding that “it’s so deep and surreal, I am just so thankful.” Around $200,000 of the compensation award went to attorneys with the Tennessee Innocence Project (TIP), who helped secure his release.
Next, with the aid of attorneys from Brazil Clark PLLC in Nashville and Flores Law Office in Chattanooga, along with co-counsel from Kathleen T. Zellner & Assoc. in Warrenville, Ill., Braseel filed suit in federal court for the Eastern District of Tennessee against Grundy County, its Sheriff’s Office and former state Bureau of Investigation agent Larry Davis, accusing them of violating his civil rights by securing his wrongful conviction. That led to an undocketed settlement which the parties announced to the Court in May 2024. See: Braseel v. Grundy Cty. Gov’t, USDC (E.D. Tenn.), Case No. 1:22-cv-00298.
Another $1.2 Million for Paul Shane Garrett
Just four months before the state paid Braseel his first $1 million, Nashville’s Metro Council approved the settlement for Paul Shane Garrett. Convicted of manslaughter for the 2000 death of Velma Tharpe, Garrett, then a 28-year-old tow truck driver, endured a lengthy interrogation from cops, during which he denied killing Tharpe 50 times and offered another eight times each to take a polygraph test and submit a blood sample for DNA analysis.
Ignoring evidence linking the killing to another suspect, Calvin Atchison, cops allegedly coerced a confession from Garrett. He was convicted and spent 10 years in prison before TIP attorneys took up his case. They convinced the Davidson County prosecutor’s Conviction Review Unit to revisit the evidence, and this time, the DNA match to Atchison was not ignored. Garrett was released from prison, and Atchison, then 49, was indicted for Tharpe’s murder in 2021. A motion to dismiss that indictment because of its delay was denied by Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Mark J. Fishburn on December 7, 2022. See: Tenn. v. Atchison, Davidson Cty. Crim. (Tenn.), Case No. 2021-B-724.
With the aid of attorneys from Neal & Harwell PLC in Nashville and Ritchie, Davies, Johnson & Stovall in Knoxville, Garrett filed suit in federal court for the Middle District of Tennessee, blaming his wrongful conviction and incarceration on the Metropolitan Government and its law enforcement personnel. That suit was then settled, and the Metro Council approved the payout for Garrett before notifying the Court on February 23, 2023. See: Garrett v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville, USDC (M.D. Tenn.), Case No. 3:22-cv-00044.
Garrett said he pleaded guilty despite his innocence after being “worn down by the investigation” and his time in jail. His attorney also reportedly told him “that if he didn’t take the plea, he would most likely be executed.” Now he encourages others like him not to give up.
Braseel also vowed to continue advocating for others also wrongfully convicted. “People need to know the fight that we fought,” he said. “It gives people in the shoes that I was in just recently hope, and we need hope.”
Additional sources: Grundy County Herald, Nashville Tennessean, WKRN, WPLN
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