Shelby County Justice Review Unit
Since 2002, almost 100 prosecutor’s offices or other local government entities have created conviction review or conviction integrity units. Almost half of them have exonerated at least one innocent person who had been incarcerated for a crime they didn’t commit.
Prior to District Attorney Mulroy’s election, there was only one conviction review unit in Tennessee, created in 2016 in Nashville. Since then, the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office remedied six wrongful conviction cases ranging from child sex abuse to murder, with convictions as long ago as 1988, and with a minimum of a 25-year sentence for an innocent person in each case.
Steven J. Mulroy is the District Attorney for Shelby County, Tennessee. He was elected DA in August 2022. DA Mulroy oversees a total staff of 238, including more than 110 prosecutors.
The Shelby County Justice Review Unit (JRU) is an independent unit operating within the DA’s Office, reporting directly to DA Mulroy. The main work of the JRU, along with its physical files and interview space, will be intentionally separated from the District Attorney’s administrative offices within the Walter L. Bailey Criminal Justice Center. This separation from the active prosecutions conducted by the DA’s Office protects the independence and integrity of the JRU.
