Groups Want Investigation Into Police “Failures” in Fletcher Case, Not New, “Punitive” Sentencing Laws

Two organizations have asked state officials for a special investigator to review the “very real failures that led to [Eliza] Fletcher’s tragic murder” and warned against using the case to pass harsher sentencing laws. 

Memphis-based People for the Enforcement of Rape Laws (PERL) and the Washington-based Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) sent a letter Thursday to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti with a host of unanswered questions about why Cleotha Abston was free to allegedly murder Fletcher earlier this year. 

Fletcher, a Memphis Kindergarten teacher, was abducted while on a morning run in September. Police said she was later killed with a single gunshot to the head. Abston was arrested for the kidnapping and murder.

Police later discovered later that Abston’s DNA matched evidence from a rape kit collected in 2021. He was later charged with that rape.  

Abston served a 20-year prison sentence for the 2000 kidnapping of a Memphis attorney. Abston was 16 at the time of the kidnapping. During that time, he held a prison job, which allowed him to accumulate 1,000 days of good time credit toward his release. However, during that time, Abston racked up 53 disciplinary infractions, many for exposing himself and possessing a deadly weapon. He exposed himself to his case manager just months before he was released two years early from his prison sentence. 

PERL and FAMM want state officials to appoint an outside investigator — not one who works for Tennessee law enforcement — to review a cascade of questions they have about the case. All of the questions are underpinned by the notion that if Abston did not get early release, he would not have been able to allegedly kidnap and murder Fletcher.  

“Did the Deparment of Corrections make a mistake in awarding Mr. Abston those time credits?” the groups asked in their letter to state officials. ”Or, was the department prohibited under current law from taking back any credits he had earned? 

“Was the department concerned about releasing Mr. Abston, given his disciplinary record, and if so, did they share those concerns with state prosecutors? Why did prosecutors not criminally charge Mr. Abston for any incidents in which he was found to be guilty of possessing a deadly weapon?”

While the groups push for answers in the case, they said they support incentives for incarcerated people to encourage them to participate in rehabilitative programming and to reduce their risk of re-offending after release. However, they do not want to advance the call for harsher sentences that will likely be touted in Nashville when the Tennessee General Assembly convenes in January. 

“Proposing new and more punitive sentencing laws might allow some to claim they are seeking justice in Ms. Fletcher’s name, but their counterproductive solutions will not prevent future tragedies,” reads the letter. “Only an independent investigation into the very real failures that led to Ms. Fletcher’s tragic murder — and a commitment to address those failures and hold people accountable — can do that.”

Megan Ybos, executive director of PERL, said at 16 she reported a stranger rape to police. They did not investigate her claims or send her rape kit for testing. Her assailant raped six more women and girls — including a 12-year-old girl — over the next nine years. 

“Now, the Eliza Fletcher case has shown that the police failure to investigate rape cases can have deadly consequences,” Ybos said in a statement. “That is why we need an independent review of the investigative failures that led to Ms. Fletcher’s tragic death. 

“Her legacy should be honored by improving police and [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation] investigations and making prisons more conducive to rehabilitative purposes. We should not allow this heartfelt tragedy to be exploited by new punitive sentencing measures that will not make anyone safer.”