Power and Prejudice: How a little-known Tennessee law convicts Black children for murders they didn’t commit

This is a story about 104 children sentenced to die in prison by the state of Tennessee. Each was convicted of a murder — even though some had not killed anyone. 

Power and Prejudice: A single incriminating statement seals Shawn’s fate

When Shawn remembers jail, he thinks about the noise. “It’s like you’re entering hell on earth,” he said. “A lot of yelling, a lot of hollering, a lot of talking, a lot of nonsense, cursing, swearing, kicking the doors, trying to get the officer’s attention.”

Power and Prejudice: Felony murder gives prosecutors immense discretion. And they’re fighting tooth and nail to keep it.

For the past few years, a debate has taken place in Tennessee’s Capitol about the felony murder rule. 

Power and Prejudice: ‘It was like they created the felony murder rule for Black people’ 

Shawn Hatcher has now spent a quarter of a century in prison. 

He is incarcerated at a correctional facility in northwestern Tennessee, along a bend in the Mississippi.

Methodology

How MLK50 investigated this story.