U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) are demanding answers from Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy after he acknowledged that an unknown number of violent criminal defendants were released back into the community without serving jail time in December 2025.
In a follow-up letter to an initial inquiry sent in February, the lawmakers said data from a Memphis Crime Beat report raises serious concerns about how violent felony cases are being handled in Shelby County.
Senator @MarshaBlackburn and I will not let our Soros-backed DA Mulroy be the weak-link in the Memphis Safe Task Force.
To #MakeMemphisMatter, we must Make Memphis Safe. With the unprecedented federal and state investment to clean up crime, we will make Memphis the safest city… https://t.co/guPlOxdVNo
— Senator Brent Taylor (@SenBrentTaylor) March 10, 2026
According to the report, 514 felony cases were resolved in Shelby County Criminal Court in December 2025. Of those, 430 cases were resolved without prison time, while only 84 defendants received prison sentences.
Mulroy (pictured above) previously informed the lawmakers that 166 of the 514 cases were designated as “violent” in the district attorney’s system, prompting questions about how many violent offenders avoided incarceration.
“In our February 27 letter, we asked, ‘Of the cases in the December 2025 [Memphis Crime Beat] report, how many involved violent or serious felony charges?’” Blackburn and Taylor wrote in their March 10 letter. “You responded as follows… ‘166 of the 514 cases in the December 2025 report are designated as “violent” in our system.”
The lawmakers said those figures suggest a gap between the number of violent cases and the number of prison sentences issued.
“Based on the data in the Memphis Crime Beat report, we already know that—out of 514 felony cases that were resolved in Shelby County Criminal Court in December 2025—only 84 of those defendants received prison time,” the letter states. “Yet, as you have noted in your response, 166 of these 514 felony cases involved violent crimes.”
“It would logically follow that, if there were only 84 defendants who received prison time in December 2025, but there were 166 violent cases in that same month, there appear to be dozens of violent criminal defendants—based on your own admission—that received no jail time in December 2025,” the letter adds.
Blackburn and Taylor are now demanding that Mulroy provide more detailed information about the cases. Specifically, they requested a complete list of the violent crimes included in the 166 cases, as well as the exact number of those defendants who were released without jail time.
“As we noted in our first letter, President Trump and his administration are working around the clock to make Memphis the safest city in America,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is your obligation as Shelby County’s District Attorney to enforce Tennessee’s criminal code and hold violent criminals accountable—not to allow them to be released back onto the streets to reoffend.”
They added that recent public safety initiatives aimed at reducing crime in Memphis should not be undermined.
“We have made significant progress in making Memphis the safest city in the United States, and we will not allow you to stall the tremendous progress that the city of Memphis has made,” the letter states.
Mulroy was asked to respond to a list of questions the lawmakers posed by 5:00 p.m. on March 17, 2026.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy” by Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.
