31 August 2019 :

Davidson County Judge Monte Watkins has approved a plea deal to vacate the death sentence of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman as a result of prosecutorial misconduct. Abdur’Rahman, who was scheduled to be executed on April 16 next year, argued that prosecutor John Zimmerman excluded potential jurors based on race during Abdur’Rahman’s 1987 capital trial. The current district attorney’s office agreed with Abdur’Rahman that his trial was infected by “overt racial bias” and that as a result his sentence should be reduced. Earlier this week, the defense and prosecution presented to a circuit court a proposed order to reduce the sentence. Abdur'Rahman was sentenced to death in 1987 in a 1986 stabbing case that killed Patrick Daniels, and wounded his wife, Norma Jean Norman. Judge Watkins approved the deal Friday, allowing Abdur'Rahman, 68, to serve three consecutive life sentences instead of facing execution. The move cements a dramatic win for Abdur'Rahman and his attorneys, who had long argued that the racial bias and misconduct of a "rogue prosecutor" had tainted his trial. District Attorney Glenn Funk, who took office in 2014, agreed. He proposed the deal that nullified Abdur'Rahman's death sentence in court on Wednesday. Defense attorney Brad MacLean signed the deal. Multiple life sentences will remain in place for the stabbings that killed Patrick Daniels and wounded Norma Jean Norman in 1986. Watkins agreed to the deal following a hearing on lead prosecutor John Zimmerman's behavior during jury selection in 1987, when he blocked three black members of the jury pool. Zimmerman now works as a Rutherford County prosecutor.