TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jun 23, 2026

Abu-Ali Abdur’rahman, a former Tennessee death row prisoner, died at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution early Sunday morning from liver cancer, his longtime attorney Bradley MacLean told the Nashville Banner. Abdur’Rahman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 in the killing of suspected drug dealer Patrick Daniels and the stabbing of Norma Jean Norman, who survived. After decades of legal fighting, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk asked the court to set aside the death sentence in 2019 because of prosecutorial misconduct and “overt racial bias” in jury selection. The trial court approved the resentencing, but the state appealed, and the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the modification. In 2021, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins overturned the death sentence for a second time. Rahman was resentenced to life in prison after the state decided not to challenge the second ruling.