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Topic A in Memphis is still the National Guard. While there are still more questions than answers about how the Guard deployment will go, I do have some answers about the law, and how I think the deployment should go.
Federal law (the “Posse Comitatus Act”) bans the use of the military to do regular law enforcement. The law has exceptions, though, and one of them is the current situation, where our Governor has called in the National Guard.
The federal government is relying in this instance on a certain provision of federal law under Title 32 of the U.S. Code dealing with National Guard training. It says that Guard members can be ordered to do “training or other duty” in this situation. The feds are using a broad interpretation of “other duty” to include ordinary law enforcement, which is a relatively novel use of the term.
A separate question is what powers the Guard members will have. If the Governor or local authority deputizes them, they could conceivably have the power to arrest and execute warrants. Or they could be limited to a support role only—which I think is the better course. There are plenty of administrative, logistics, transport, etc. roles they could do, to free up police and deputies to do the actual patrolling and arresting. It’s my hope and expectation that that is all they’ll do.
Let me be clear: I don’t support bringing the Guard in. We should welcome federal help, but it should be the right kind of help. I prefer it be entirely federal law enforcement agents trained in civilian law enforcement, not military troops who aren’t. It’s also a short-term fix, when we need a long-term solution that will last after the cameras leave. And it’ll cost millions of dollars that could be better spent on other public safety strategies: a crime lab, police recruitment, and street-level violence intervention programs to name just a few---the latter of which have been recently defunded by the federal government.
But if the Guard is to come, they should play a support role. In DC, they’ve done beautification, including picking up trash. Here in Memphis we have a blight problem, and blight is tied to crime. We have blighted houses that need to be torn down or renovated—I’d love to see the Guard help with that.
Above all, we need transparency and clarity from the get-go. Before any troops show up, the public needs to know for sure how many are coming; how long they’ll stay; where they’ll be; whether they’ll be uniformed and/or armed; and exactly what their duties and powers will be.
And those powers should be restricted, so rights are protected, and trust is preserved.
Guilty Verdict Secured in Domestic Violence Trial: A Shelby County jury returned a guilty verdict against defendant Earl Ramcharan in a domestic violence case successfully prosecuted by ADA Alicia Walton, despite the challenges of limited evidence.
The case involved an incident where the defendant slapped his live-in partner three times in the face. There were no photos of injury, no medical evidence, and the only available witness— the victim’s autistic adult son—was unable to testify. The case ultimately came down to the victim’s testimony against the defendant’s.
On the stand, the victim testified candidly about her cultural background, where men traditionally control the household, and described in detail the assault and her fear afterward. The defense emphasized the defendant’s standing in the community and his role as a provider. However, during his own testimony, the defendant admitted to controlling aspects of the household, further supporting the State’s argument.
The jury found the defendant guilty, validating the victim’s account and demonstrating the importance of her courage in testifying.
Assistant District Attorney Alicia Walton handled the trial.
Trial Underway in Child Rape and Kidnapping Case: The trial of Daireus Ice began this week in Shelby County Criminal Court, where prosecutors outlined what they called “a parent’s worst nightmare.” Ice is accused of orchestrating and filming the 2018 kidnapping and sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl.
Investigators say Ice and co-defendant Antoine Wilson kidnapped the child from her front yard. Wilson then sexually assaulted the victim while Ice recorded the attack before the two abandoned the child near her home. The crime came to light when a disturbing video was discovered on a cellphone that Ice had used and returned.
Wilson has pleaded guilty to all charges and is expected to testify that Ice recruited him and directed the attack. Prosecutors also plan to call multiple witnesses, including a handwriting expert and the victim’s brother, who was just five years old at the time.
Chief Prosecutors Devon Dennis and Lessie Rainey are handling the case and trial.
Judge Finds Probable Cause in Patricide Case: Shelby County judge Sheila B. Renfroe found probable cause against Maurice Pian, who is charged with First Degree Murder, following a preliminary hearing in General Sessions Division 9 successfully argued by ADA Bryan Starnes.
Testimony revealed that when officers responded to the scene, Pian admitted to killing his own father. Officers discovered the victim inside the residence with multiple stab wounds. He was transported to Regional One, where he was pronounced deceased.
Following the hearing, the defense asked the Court to set a monetary bond so that the defendant could be released from jail pending trial. The State argued for an unaffordably high bond in order to keep the defendant in jail, based on the defendant’s danger to public safety. The Court granted the State’s request, and the defendant remains in custody
Assistant District Attorney Bryan Starnes handled the hearing.
DA Mulroy Joins Community Leaders to Celebrate New Recovery Center
District Attorney Steve Mulroy attended the ribbon-cutting for the new Shelby County office of the Cumberland Heights Recovery Center in Bartlett. The facility, which opened this week, expands access to substance abuse treatment. DA Mulroy emphasized the critical role a strong treatment network plays in reducing crime and shared a lighthearted limerick to mark the occasion.
"Most of the types of offenses we're talking about would be ones that would ordinarily be processed by our office. Some of them might have a federal nexus, and the US Attorney's Office could choose to pick those up, but that's going to be a small percentage of the cases. The bulk of the cases are going to be coming through 201 Poplar Jail and prosecuted by our office in the state courts, and that, of course, is going to exacerbate an already existing jail overcrowding problem, and I think that all of us need to get our heads around how we're going to deal with that," Mulroy said. |Shelby County District Attorney speaks on what he expects of National Guard in Memphis| via FOX13
The district attorney’s office said that the crime came to light when the mother of a victim related to another case found a disturbing video on a cellphone that Ice used and returned. In opening statements of Ice’s trial, prosecutor Devon Dennis described the case as “a parent’s worst nightmare.” |Trial underway for man charged in brutal child rape case| via WREG3
A man accused of killing will remain in jail after a bond hearing I, according to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. Maurice Pian IV was arrested in April of this year for first-degree murder after being accused of fatally stabbing his father multiple times. |Man accused of stabbing dad to death held on $5M bond| via WREG3
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