Days ahead of early voting, Shelby County district attorney candidates meet in testy debate

In another testy debate, challenger Steve Mulroy and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich met in front of the Rotary Club of Memphis to answer questions submitted by members of the group.

The debate, which was moderated tightly by WMC Action News 5 anchor Joe Birch, president of the Rotary Club, allowed each candidate a seven-minute opening statement, 90 seconds to respond to each question, and a minute for closing remarks.

A few days prior to early voting, each candidate stuck closely to their talking points, with Mulroy advocating for criminal justice reforms, including bail reform, along with his disdain for the truth-in-sentencing law that went into effect at the beginning of July.

Weirich, the incumbent district attorney who has held the position since 2011 when she was appointment by then Gov. Bill Haslem, opted to portray Mulroy as a radical activist who does not have experience as a prosecutor and someone who "sued the sheriff asking for the release of everyone at 201 Poplar."

She also moved to reframe attacks from Mulroy accusing her office of prosecutorial misconduct — referring to a 2017 private reprimand from The Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee Weirich received — as "errors."

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"I'm happy to be called the worst by every person that I have sent to prison and who is a convicted murderer," Weirich said. "I was privately reprimanded, and I shared it with the community. The other cases that had been reversed because of prosecutorial error. And I'm stressing that word because my opponent wants to make this sound as if we sit around the DA's office every day looking to prosecute innocent people."

An early question from a Rotarian, directed at Weirich, questioned an ad her campaign ran, displaying an image of Mulroy at a Starbucks unionization rally coupled with footage from a "defund the police" march to show her opponent as a supporter of the movement.

"I think the creative genius behind my commercials is equivalent to the creative genius behind Professor Mulroy's commercials, accusing me of things that have never happened and trying to make connections with me and President Trump," Weirich said in response. "It's all done in the name of politics."

During his 90 second response, Mulroy took the time to attack the ad and push his view on properly funding police.

"It's absolute correct that the TV commercial crops and doctors a photo of me at the Starbucks rally where I was rallying to defend workers who had been fired for unionizing," he said. "Contrary to what you've just heard, I've never advocated for [defunding police], what I have advocated for...is hiring more police, spending more money on training, or money on recruiting, because that's what helps with actual crime."

Weirich also aired a radio ad with Deborah Marion, the mother of slain former Memphis basketball star Lorenzen Wright, announcing her support for the incumbent district attorney Monday afternoon. In the ad, Marion said the appearance of Wright's ex-wife, Sherra Wright, before the parole board, three years into her sentence, was proof of the need for truth-in-sentencing laws.

Mulroy has long opposed the law, telling The Commercial Appeal before the forum began he believed truth-in-sentencing laws would have made no difference in that case and that there was no risk of Wright being paroled. He added that Weirich is "further right than Governor Lee and the American Conservative Union" when it comes to the law.

Lee did not support the bill, nor sign it when it reached his desk. The bill went into law without his signature.

"Truth-in-sentencing basically abolishes parole," Mulroy said on stage. "It doesn't matter how many classes you take, doesn't matter how hard you try to rehabilitate or how hard you try to reform. You're never getting a reduction in your sentence. And that means that when they come out, they are going to likely reoffend. "

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County district attorney election: Amy Weirich, Steve Mulroy