Behind Closed Doors, A Nashville ‘Runaway Grand Jury’ Refuses To Indict Three Murder Cases

In a typical quarter, a grand jury might issue a non-indictment three times; the most recent returned 47 cases without an indictment.

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By Connor Daryani, Nashville Banner [Creative Commons ] –

In the first quarter of this year, the Davidson County grand jury returned 47 “no true bills” — non-indictments on felony cases recommended by prosecutors — a rate more than 10 times higher than average. Included in the non-indictments were three first-degree murder cases. 

From January 2021 to December 2024, Davidson County grand juries chose not to indict an average of three cases per quarter for every 607 heard. That means that over four years, 50 people were not indicted and did not have their cases go to trial. 

The most recent grand jury, whose term ended March 31, heard 654 cases and returned 47 no true bills. The majority of these non-indictments were for lesser offenses like shoplifting and vandalism, but other more serious charges included aggravated arson, robbery and murder. 

Nashville attorney David Raybin, who has been practicing law for 50 years as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney, said he has never seen anything like it, and that based on the information in the warrants, he believed there was “more than enough” evidence to indict the alleged perpetrators in the murders. 

“When you get to 47 [no true bills], that is an extreme aberration from the norm,” Raybin said. “If these were very low-level shoplifting kind of things, I could understand that. But three of them include first-degree murder. I can only conclude from this that this is what I would call a runaway grand jury.”

Two cases stemmed from the murder of a woman in August. An MNPD warrant alleges that the two suspects were seen masked in security footage and firing multiple shots toward the woman before getting back in their cars and returning to another apartment complex, where they were allegedly identified without their masks on in security camera footage. 

In another case, two people were sitting in a car when the alleged assailant pulled up next to them and fired multiple shots, killing one of the victims. The survivor identified the alleged perpetrator. 

The grand jury room is not a courtroom. The burden of proof is far lower, as prosecutors need only show there is probable cause to believe someone committed a crime, which is why no true bills are typically rare. 

New York state judge Sol Wachtler famously said in 1985 that prosecutors have so much influence over grand juries that they could get them to “indict a ham sandwich” if they wanted to, which is why the number of non-indicted cases stands out. 

An Opaque Process

Roughly half of the states in the country require a grand jury indictment to initiate the criminal justice process. Under the Tennessee Constitution, the district attorney has to present all felony cases to the grand jury and receive a unanimous vote from the 12 members to return an indictment. 

“It’s sort of a buffer between the government or law enforcement and putting a person on trial,” Judge Steve Dozier told the Banner. “It’s a group of citizens that decide.”

Just like a regular jury, a grand jury is a randomly selected group of citizens. But at its head is a foreperson: a voluntary position that the judge who is presiding over that quarter of the Grand Jury has the discretion to appoint. Dozier explained that while the foreperson only votes in rare instances, they are responsible for guiding the grand jury. 

​​”The ones I’ve used, they’re just leaders and kind of hands off, and just make sure they do their business,” Dozier said. 

What happens in the grand jury room is largely a mystery to the outside world. Grand jury members are sworn to secrecy. A publicly posted grand jury report gives a rundown of how many cases the grand jury returned indictments on and how many they didn’t. It also dives into any programming that the foreperson organized for the grand jurors, which is typically used to educate the jurors on the criminal justice system and the role they play in it. This quarter, the grand jury heard from District Attorney Glenn Funk, Public Defender Martesha Johnson, The Raphah Institute, Nashville Community Review Board Director Jill Fitcheard, Director of Unheard Voices Outreach Rahim Buford and MTSU Professor Sekou Franklin. 

This was local progressive organizer Theeda Murphy’s second stint as a grand jury foreperson, with both appointments being made by Judge Khadija Babb. In her first stint, there were eight no true bills out of 694 cases. 

A spokesperson for Babb declined to comment on the situation, pointing out that judges are not provided with explanations as to why a true bill or no true bill was reached. The Banner reached out to Murphy for comment but did not receive a response. 

This go-around, aside from the grand jury’s regular business, the body also conducted an investigation into a whistleblower complaint brought against the Metro Nashville Police Department and called for a special prosecutor to conduct an investigation. This type of investigation is a departure from a grand jury’s regular business, and while an investigative grand jury can be assembled to look into government corruption, the District Attorney or Attorney General must first call for that assembly.  

That investigation, coupled with the high number of no true bills led Raybin to question whether or not the grand jury was doing what it’s supposed to. 

“They may have imposed a much higher standard on the police department and the prosecutors than are required. There’s no other explanation for this,” Raybin said. “If you put these two things together, I think that there’s some sort of anti-police bias or something going on here that you do not normally see.”

What Happens When a No True Bill is Returned?

Part of why a no true bill is so rare is the low burden of proof. All a prosecutor has to show is probable cause to believe someone committed a crime.

A true bill does not mean someone is guilty. It simply means that their case can proceed to trial. 

Conversely, a no true bill is not an acquittal, so if Funk chooses, he can bring all 47 cases back before the next grand jury. Raybin called this an “unnecessary delay,” which could cause both guilty and innocent people to spend more time in the criminal justice system. 

“When you have a delay of that magnitude, of that number of cases, it’s certainly not healthy. It’s not designed that way,” Raybin said. “If you have [a no true bill] every once in a while, that’s normal, it’s expected, and it’s part of the process. This many is an aberration, and it’s prejudicial to the state, and it’s prejudicial to defendants, and it doesn’t give people a quick resolution of the cases, which people want.”

The District Attorney’s office declined to comment on whether or not it would bring back any of the cases to the next grand jury.