The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators wants state Rep. Paul Sherrell to be punished for saying the state should return to “hanging by a tree” as a form of capital punishment.
“The Republican Caucus should be ashamed and outraged. The silence of his members is deafening,” Black Caucus Chairman Sam McKenzie says.
A half-baked apology won’t suffice, either, says McKenzie, who sounded off with the caucus Thursday.
Sherrell, a Sparta Republican on the Criminal Justice Committee, made the comment as the Republican-controlled panel voted Tuesday in favor of legislation allowing death row inmates to request electrocution if lethal injection protocol is off the rails, as it has been. The measure was amended to add death by firing squads.
Apparently, the argument goes that we’ve had problems with lethal injection guidelines, so why not bring back firing squads since people can carry without a permit and the state could recruit people off the street to do the dirty work.
While McKenzie is seeking the minimum punishment, Rep. Johnny Shaw, a Bolivar Democrat and member of the Black Caucus, is calling for Sherrell to resign. Shaw points out Sherrell attends the same prayer sessions he does each week, but he notes the Bible’s New Testament contains nothing about hanging people.
They spoke about Sherrell’s flippancy after House Republican leaders put a statement in front of him Thursday morning and told him to read it in the chamber. They point out he’s also sponsoring legislation to change John Lewis Way in Nashville to President Trump Way, a slap in the face to civil rights advocates.
“I regret that I used very poor judgment in voicing my support of a colleague’s bill in the Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday,” Sherrell intoned. “My aggressive comments were intended to convey my belief that for the cruelest and most heinous crimes, a just society requires the death penalty in kind. Although a victim’s family cannot be restored when an execution is carried out, a lesser punishment undermines the value we place on protecting life. My intention was to express my support of families who often wait decades for justice. I sincerely apologize to anyone who may I have hurt or offended.”
(It must be noted that Sherrell didn’t read the statement correctly, using the word “aggressive” instead of “exaggerated” and then botching the last few words.)
Thus, though it’s hard to take anything Sherrell says seriously, this is a different situation. Not only did he and the statement refuse to acknowledge that his comment conjured images of Black Tennesseans being beaten and lynched for hundreds of years, he tried to make it seem as if he were the victim, simply because he supports an immediate death penalty. Nevermind the fact that many people on Death Row nationwide have been found not guilty after years in prison.
On the House floor, state Rep. G.A. Hardaway did not respond with a smile, saying Sherrell’s apology wasn’t sincere – probably because it wasn’t.
Hardaway, one of two Black lawmakers on the Criminal Justice Committee, says he was “sad” and “mad” at the same time when he heard Sherrell call for hanging people.
“I couldn’t believe that I was hearing that and of all committees, a justice committee,” Hardaway says. The Memphis Democrat held his tongue on Tuesday because he didn’t want to display anger.
It evokes the sordid history of not just Tennessee, but of America, of those days when lynchings were common practice, when due process was denied to Black men whenever a white man decided to.
Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, on Sherrell’s remarks
But Hardaway contends Sherrell made a follow-up statement and used the term “living tree,” which made it more “maddening” for him.
“It evokes the sordid history of not just Tennessee, but of America, of those days when lynchings were common practice, when due process was denied to Black men whenever a white man decided to,” Hardaway says. “And I don’t need to hear anybody talk about, ‘It wasn’t me, that I wasn’t alive back then.’”
Asked about the matter Thursday, House Speaker Cameron Sexton says nobody approves of what Sherrell said. “I think if you saw, he apologized on the House floor for those comments.”
Sexton’s spokesman didn’t respond to email questions later about whether he felt Sherrell should be removed from committees.
Black Caucus members were apoplectic at the press conference shortly, especially since state Rep. Justin Pearson’s mic had been cut off as he tried to address the matter during the House’s preliminary “honoring and welcoming” portion of the Thursday session. Pearson previously was dressed down by the House Republican Caucus for wearing a dashiki the day he was sworn in this month after winning a special election to replace the late state Rep. Barbara Cooper.
He continues to wear it, and it must be noted, the dashiki looks better than most suit jackets.
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