Hamilton County DA: Why Prosecutors Did Not Seek Death Penalty For Former Teacher In Child Sex Abuse Case

Image Credit: tennesseeda.gov, Hamilton County Jail & Canva

Tennessee Conservative News Staff –

Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp explained why prosecutors did not seek a life sentence or the death penalty for a former Hamilton County teacher who was sentenced to sixty years in prison for sexual abuse of students in his classroom.

In an interview with NewsChannel 9, Wamp explained that, based on state law, that was not an option for prosecutors. 

“Based on the indictment and the convictions, the state did not have the option to ask for a life sentence,” Wamp said. “While he was convicted for rape of a child, he was also convicted of counts that required a merger of all of the counts in the indictment which resulted in the range of 40 to 60 years.”

She noted that prosecutors did not get to choose between requesting a life sentence and requesting sixty years and also questioned whether the law was playing out as lawmakers had intended for it to.

“It’s a complicated sentencing issue that we do not agree with and we believe the legislature did not intend to operate the way that it does, but it’s what we had to work with based on our indictment and convictions,” Wamp said.

48-year-old Duane Sanders, a former first grade teacher at Wallace A. Smith Elementary School in Ooltewah, was convicted on seven counts of aggravated sexual battery, seven counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child, and one count of aggravated rape of a child.

Prosecutors fought for Sanders to be given the maximum sentence allowed under law, believing that this would keep him from being to hurt any other children in the future.

“We are confident with a 60-year sentence that Duane Sanders will never get out of prison and have the opportunity to prey on children again,” Wamp said. “That’s what we wanted to make sure of.”