TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jan 27, 2021

Arguments were heard again this week on whether the trial of a white police officer charged with murdering a Black man can be held fairly with a Nashville jury, the Tennessean reports. Metro Nashville Police Officer Andrew Delke has been charged with one count of premeditated first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of Daniel Hambrick. Delke has pleaded not guilty, saying he was acting in self-defense after he saw Hambrick holding a gun. In 2019, Delke’s legal team argued that anti-police sentiment that erupted after the event tainted the potential jury pool. That motion was denied and the Court of Criminal Appeals declined to intervene. The team argued on Monday that months of civil unrest this past summer have further shifted public opinion against police in the city.