Tennessee
Nashville man hopes for freedom: ‘Bring me a pair of sprinting shoes’
Gov. Bill Lee will decide whether to adopt the parole board’s recommendation to exonerate Thomas Clardy of first-degree murder
A Nashville man who proclaimed for years that he was not a killer finally heard the words that could change his life:
“It appears we have an innocent man in prison in the state of Tennessee, and the issue should be resolved.”
When he heard that, he wasn’t joyful. He wasn’t excited. The way he sees it, how could he be?
“How can you be excited about something that was taken from you that should have never been taken?” he said in an interview from prison on March 25.
For nearly 20 years, Thomas Clardy has been trying to prove that what he is saying is true. Every day he has been trying to show people that he did not shoot Kirk Clouatre, that he was not at the auto body shop in Madison where Clouatre was gunned down that night in 2005. For more than a third of his life, Clardy, now 47, has been confined to a prison cell, trying to convince someone with power that he did not deserve to die there.
When Tennessee Board of Parole member Tim Gobble said those words on Feb. 18, what Clardy felt was relief.
“Every day I had to prove to somebody that what I’m saying is the truth. So now the people in authority, they saying it,” Clardy said. “That was my happiness, that someone else was able to tell them this. … It felt great for somebody else to speak up for me.”
Clardy slept better that night than he had his entire life. But over 40 nights later, it’s getting harder to keep waking up in a prison cell.
At this point, Clardy has done all he can do. He and his attorneys, including a team from the Tennessee Innocence Project and Bass, Berry & Sims, convinced a majority of the parole board that he is innocent.
But Gov. Bill Lee is the one with the power. The board’s nonbinding recommendation was scheduled to go to Lee’s desk after the hearing, and Lee will then review the materials in Clardy’s file to determine if he should exonerate him. All Clardy can do is wait.
It’s not clear when Lee might make his decision. A spokesperson for Lee’s office did not return The Tennessean’s request for comment.
In his first interview since the parole board’s decision, Clardy on March 25 described what it was like to return to prison after being released from 2023-2025, what it is like to remain there after the parole board’s vote, and what he looks forward to if he is set free.
His initial freedom was short-lived
Clardy cried for the last time on Aug. 10, 2025.
It was nighttime and he was alone at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, feeling homesick.
He had walked out of that prison before. On Oct. 20, 2023, a federal judge found him innocent and set him free.
When he was free, Clardy worked as a furniture mover and went to church every week. He connected with a wide circle of people who were inspired by his story. One of those people was GEODIS Americas chief financial officer Andrew Grant, who said of Clardy, “I wish I was the man he has proven to be.”
Clardy also worried about when the other shoe would drop.
“I was joyful about being free for 22 months, but every day it was like being under the gun as well,” he said. “Every day I had to wait and pray and hope that I didn’t receive a phone call that I was going to have to return back to prison.”
The call came. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office appealed the judge’s order that freed Clardy, and in early 2025, an appellate judge reversed the decision.
Clardy was ordered to return to prison Aug. 8, leaving behind his pregnant fiancée Keondra Cooper. People asked him why he didn’t run.
‘Have you heard anything?’
Since 1989, Tennessee state courts have exonerated — or declared legally innocent — just 40 people, according to the Tennessee Innocence Project, the state chapter of the national Innocence Project. Tennessee’s governors, who also have the power to declare a person innocent, have exonerated just two people in recent years, in 2017 and 2021, according to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website. Both had already been released from prison when they were exonerated. At the board’s most recent exoneration hearing before Clardy’s in January 2025, a majority of the members voted to recommend exoneration for Charlie Dunn, who died in 2015. Lee has not exonerated Dunn.
A conservative estimation holds that 1% of all people in prison are innocent, with other estimates ranging as high as 5%, according to information on the Innocence Project’s website. If those figures hold true in Tennessee, hundreds of innocent people are in prison right now.
Many of them had given up hope, Clardy said. But the parole board’s decision to recommend Clardy’s exoneration has inspired some of the most hardened prisoners, Clardy said. Every day since Feb. 18, they’ve asked him, “Have you heard anything?”
And every day he doesn’t, it gets harder, he said. Yet he feels like he can’t let it show.
“I always want to know, I ask the Lord, when can it be my day, so when I can just cry?” he said. He said he feels a duty not to let others lose hope for their futures. “I can’t sell you a dream if I’m crying every day about what I’m going through.”
What Clardy hopes for
Clardy is from Nashville. He was born at Baptist Hospital, now Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown, went to Pearl-Cohn High School and led its football team to the 1997 state championship. Even now, the prison he is in is fewer than 10 miles from the state Capitol. Not being able to persuade those in power for so long has been painful.
“I’m in my backyard, and I’m screaming help, but the people in my front can’t even hear me,” Clardy said.
He paused. “And I don’t want to be crying, but I need help,” Clardy said, his voice cracking.
Clardy said he can’t see far enough to picture the future, but he has things he looks forward to if he is released.
Seeing his children, fiancée, friends and supporters in person
Right now, all conversations go through “a pay phone that’s going to tell me you have five minutes before the phone hangs up. You have 60 seconds, and you ain’t even been able to get everything out.”
“Just imagine your child or your spouse having a bad day and trying to help her get through it, only to be told that your time is up,” he said.
Being with someone who loves him
“It’s the hugs, it’s the good nights, and actually being able to physically sleep at night with somebody that loves you the same way you love them. That’s the things that I look forward to,” he said.
Running
“Now, I wanna run. When they give me my freedom, I wanna run, for real,” Clardy said. “That’s what I told — bring me a pair of sprinting shoes when you come pick me up. I don’t care about getting in the car. I don’t care about getting in the house. I just want to run, because I’m able to be free now.”
Seeing his new child
If Clardy walks out of prison for a second time, there will be a baby waiting for him at home. Her name is Ennocence.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Nashville Soccer Club has been named Tennessee’s 2026 “Professional Team of the Year” for its historic 2025 season. Nashville SC and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (TSHOF) made the announcement Wednesday.
In 2025, Nashville SC became the first professional sports team in Tennessee to win a championship with its Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title. The team also qualified for the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons.
“This year’s Achievement Award honorees reflect the very best of Tennessee’s rich sports tradition — from legends who’ve inspired generations to rising stars making their mark on the national stage,“ said Harold Graeter, chairman of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors. ”We are proud to honor these individuals and teams whose dedications, excellence, and impact represent what the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame Stands for.”
In addition to their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title and qualification to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, Nashville SC said it set multiple club records in 2025, including:
- The most single season wins in Nashville SC history (22)
- The most single season MLS wins in Nashville SC history (17)
- The longest unbeaten streaks in Nashville SC history (15 all competitions, 12 MLS)
- The most single season home wins in Nashville SC history (15)
- The most single season goals in Nashville SC history (75)
- The most MLS All-Stars in Nashville SC history with three (Hany Mukhtar, Andy Najar, Sam Surridge)
The TSHOF will formally present Nashville SC with its award at its 2026 Banquet at the Omni Nashville Downtown on July 11.
Nashville SC said this honor is the third TSHOF Achievement Award in the club’s history, with the others including principal owner John Ingram’s 2022 ‘Tennessean of the Year’ recognition and Hany Mukhtar’s 2023 ‘Professional Player of the Year’ honors.
Copyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.
Tennessee
A Tennessee congressman introduced a federal bill to crack down on fake emergency calls. Here’s what to know about swatting.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A U.S. congressman from Tennessee has introduced a bill to crack down on swatting.
Rep. David Kustoff (R, TN-8) introduced the “Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act,” which would strengthen federal penalties for swatting.
The measure says, “This bill makes it a crime to intentionally convey false or misleading information in circumstances where the information may reasonably be expected to cause an emergency response and the information indicates the occurrence of criminal conduct or a threat to health or safety (commonly referred to as swatting).”
This comes after more than half a dozen schools in Tennessee were all placed on lockdown this week after hoax school threats.
Here’s which TN schools were impacted by ‘hoax’ threats, and what to know about the swatting investigations
What is swatting?
According to the FBI, swatting is when a person calls 911 and fakes an emergency that draws a response from law enforcement — usually a SWAT team.
The calls can put first responders and victims in dangerous situations, the FBI said, as the callers often report tales of hostages about to be executed or bombs about to go off.
“The community is placed in danger as responders rush to the scene, taking them away from real emergencies,” the FBI said. “And the officers are placed in danger as unsuspecting residents may try to defend themselves.”
While the FBI does not have a publicly recorded number of swatting calls that have been made year over year in the U.S., the National Association of Attorneys General says swatting threats have escalated across the U.S. Because of this, several states have taken targeted action to criminalize these calls, including Kentucky, which in 2022 approved a bill that would increase penalties for falsely reporting emergencies and allow courts to order restitution to affected agencies or individuals.
According to the FBI’s 2023 Year in Review report, it launched the National Common Operating Picture database to track swatting events. The agency reported more than 300 incidents between May and September of 2023.
The K-12 School Shooting Database recorded swatting incidents at U.S. schools from 2023 to 2024. The highest number of reported incidents occurred in March 2023, with 210. The second-most was 148 in February 2023.
Recent swatting incidents in Tennessee
On Tuesday, a flurry of swatting incidents caused several schools in Middle Tennessee to be put on lockdown and lockout, drawing responses from several law enforcement agencies and disrupting students’ education.
In April, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a threat made against a student at Independence High School.
The school was placed on a brief lockdown as the sheriff’s office investigated the threat.
The sheriff’s office later determined that the call was actually a swatting incident and was likely made from out-of-state.
A spokesperson for Williamson County Schools said some similar false threat calls were made to other schools in the area as well.
The investigation into that incident is ongoing.
Earlier this year, an East Tennessee teen was arrested for allegedly making four swatting calls to the McMinnville Police Department. The caller reported that a person had been shot and another was being held hostage.
The 17-year-old Maryville boy admitted to being angry at another teen staying at a McMinnville home and paying someone to call false emergencies and being present when the calls were made.
The Associated Press reported in 2025 about a wave of swatting calls at multiple college campuses in August.
One of the first incidents in this wave occurred in Tennessee at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga when authorities received false calls reporting an active shooter with an AR-15-style rifle and four people shot.
The AP reported that dispatchers reported hearing multiple gunshots on the calls.
Ways to protect yourself from swatters
The FBI shared measures you can take to protect yourself from swatters, including:
- Review your online presence for sensitive personal information that could enable malicious actors to conduct a swatting attack.
- Exercise care when posting content (including photos and videos) or sharing it with individuals online. Although seemingly innocuous, images and videos can be exploited or manipulated by malicious actors for criminal activity.
- Consider online resources and services that may aid in reducing or removing sensitive publicly available information.
- Use strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication on all devices and accounts, including smart home devices.
- Discuss swatting with your family members or colleagues and have a plan in place in the event of law enforcement contact at your residence, business, or other location.
Copyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.
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