District lawyer candidates enchantment to Black Nashvillians forward of Might main
Candidates for Nashville district lawyer mentioned the systemic roots of crime, recidivism and the racial disparities seen all through the prison justice system Saturday as they appealed for the Black vote in a race that’s already heating up.
Democratic candidates together with incumbent Glenn Funk, Sara Beth Myers and P. Danielle Nellis participated in a discussion board alongside judicial candidates hosted by the Black Nashville Meeting at Nice Inexperienced Missionary Baptist Church Sunday forward of the Might main.
Funk, who was elected in 2014 partly due to his efforts to garner endorsements from distinguished Black leaders and seize heavy percentages of minority voters, instructed the largely Black viewers that his file within the seat speaks for itself.
Minority illustration within the DA’s workplace has elevated from 3 to about 28% since he is been in workplace, Funk claimed, with individuals of shade making up at the least one-third of his management group.
He additionally emphasised his efforts to implement restorative justice practices in juvenile courtroom, remove money bail for some misdemeanors and scale back the variety of people incarcerated within the metropolis.
His opponents may current a severe problem for Funk although, with one, Danielle Nellis, emphasizing her connection to the very group she was chatting with Sunday.
Nice Inexperienced is Nellis’ household dwelling church, she instructed the gang Sunday. Not too long ago, her household memorialized her grandfather there.
Although she is lesser-known than Funk and Myers, who has nearly matched Funk’s fundraising efforts, Nellis could be the primary Black feminine to carry the workplace if elected.
“I would be the first girl, the primary individual of shade to carry that workplace. My lived expertise having been a member of the family of a sufferer of crime, as a black girl, and as one whose household has suffered systemic injustices uniquely qualifies me for this place,” Nellis mentioned. “My balanced skilled expertise as a protection lawyer and prosecutor, and a clerk for a federal courtroom fudge uniquely qualifies me for this place.”
Nellis, a former assistant district lawyer in Nashville, and Myers each took intention at Funk’s efforts to diversify the DA’s Workplace and spoke concerning the have to be engaged members locally.
“Diversifying an workplace is a really minor, although the necessary first step, however we have to get out into the group,” Myers mentioned in response to a query about prosecutors appearing disrespectfully and even “anti-Black.”
The necessity for cultural competency and acknowledgment of racial disparities was a theme all through the discussion board Saturday, which additionally featured panels of judicial candidates and candidates for circuit courtroom clerks.
Myers mentioned that if she was elected, she would name for a “civil rights and prison justice audit” of town so as to determine the place disparities are.
All three candidates for district lawyer are vying for the Democratic nomination to be made through the Might 3 main. If elected, the seat carries an eight-year time period.
Discover out extra concerning the candidates for choose right here.
Reporter Mariah Timms contributed to this story.
Need to learn extra tales like this? A subscription to certainly one of our Tennessee publications will get you limitless entry to all the newest information all through your entire USA TODAY Community.
Meghan Mangrum covers schooling for the USA TODAY Community — Tennessee. Contact her at [email protected]. Comply with her on Twitter @memangrum.