Melissa Brown Nashville Tennessean
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Friday issued 43 pardons, granting an official statement of forgiveness for a host of Tennesseans the governor said have demonstrated strong rehabilitative and community engagement efforts.
Include among the pardons is Lanesha Faye Brown, a 38-year-old Nashville resident who was just 13 years old when she was convicted of attempted second degree murder. Brown retaliated with a small knife from an art project. She’s never had another criminal incident on her record in the past 25 years, Lee said on Friday, and earned her associate’s degree.
But Brown’s criminal record continued to follow her. She was hired to work at a Nashville hotel but was later fired when her criminal background check came back several weeks later.
“Her colleagues and the hotel general manager were so impressed with her, that they successfully lobbied the hotel’s corporate office to allow Ms. Brown to return to work,” Lee said. “There was no victim opposition to her clemency claim.”
During his administration, Lee has typically issued a swath of clemency grants at the end of each year. This year, Lee only granted pardons, but has in previous years also granted commutations, which can reduce time served for individuals or expedite their cases to parole eligibility.
Lee earlier this year quietly ended an expedited clemency program, which he established in 2021, for those sentenced under a previous version of the state’s drug-free school zone law.
More:Lee ends expedited clemency process for harsh drug-free school zone sentences
Among Lee’s other pardons announced Friday include Matthew Hoover, a Chattanooga business owner now involved in several community groups and a jail ministry and Quanroyas Clendening, who was convicted of felony drug offenses three decades ago but later earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and now runs an ACT prep program for high school students.
“It is a very serious responsibility that I take,” Lee said of the pardon process. “We have an exhaustive process that we go through before we get to this moment. Every case was reviewed individually by the board of parole, my legal team and individually by me.”
Those receiving pardons:
Tanika Woodard
Sabrina Myrick Adams
Otto Adkerson
Pamela Amos
Ashley Cooper Barnhill
Erik Bennett
Justin Beshearse
Lanesha Brown
Quanroyas Clendening
Jeffrey Crick
Johnny Drinkard
Lauren Driver
Angelia Laderman Dycus
Jason Hall
Sarah Harrell
Kimberly Holliday
Matthew Hoover
Joshua Hunt
Jonathan Jackson
James Jones
Kathy Keel
Tameka Kirk
Steven Langston
Shantie Martin
Miguel Monzon
Tyree Morgan
Brittany Nepa
Zennia Nesmith
Shirley Parsons
Christopher Prince
Cynthia Ramirez
Stephanie Robertson
Jennifer Rush
Melissa Smith
Thomas Smith
Taylor Stevenson
Robert Turner
Patrick Varni
Jeffrey Victory
Pamela Waller
Janet Watson
Joseph Whitfield
Paul Williams