Tennessee
Tennessee board recommends Jelly Roll be pardoned for crimes committed in his youth
Country music star Jelly Roll is a step closer to being granted a pardon for crimes he committed, including robbery, in his younger days, a Tennessee sheriff said.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said Tuesday on X that the state Board of Parole voted to endorse a pardon for the singer, legally known as Jason B. Deford, 40. The Associated Press reported that the vote was unanimous, with one member recusing.
Under Tennessee law, the matter is now before Gov. Bill Lee, who can grant a pardon, grant a commutation erasing Jelly Roll’s criminal record or turn down the request.
Spokespersons for the board and for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Hall said he asked Lee to pardon Jelly Roll roughly a year ago, and he indicated that Tuesday’s vote was part of that endeavor.
Jelly Roll, known for his face tattoos and prodigious presence, sharpened his rap skills in prison before he blended them with country music for a career that earned him four Grammy Award nominations in February.
He has used his experience as a basis for some of his music and to inspire others imprisoned, attracted to lives of crime or otherwise marginalized with little sense of hope.
He speaks at prisons, rehabilitation programs and schools. In April, he accepted an award for his advocacy from the World Literacy Foundation at its annual summit at Oxford University, where a host likened him to a modern-day Johnny Cash.
Jelly Roll has said he’s not allowed to vote because of his criminal convictions.
He said he spent most of the years between ages 14 and 25 behind bars, with his most consequential conviction being for a robbery. He admitted on a podcast last month that he sold drugs in his Nashville neighborhood, where “the only people who had money did crime.”
He said a low point in life was when a prison guard came to his cell to report his daughter had been born — 17 years ago.
“I had the one pair of clothes that I was incarcerated in,” he said on the “SmartLess” podcast. “I had zero money. In fact, I was in debt. It was the most honest accountability and self-reflection moment in my life.”
Jelly Roll rapped in prison, he said, and eventually more than 200 prisoners surrounded him for Friday night performances. “We’d beat on the walls,” he said on the podcast, referring to makeshift rap beats.
“It felt like we’d be free for the night,” he said.
He was released from prison in late 2016, according to state records. He didn’t immediately break through in music, but he clawed at his dreams, “living in a van and doing $50 shows,” he said on the podcast.
His music told some of his story. “Save Me” in 2020 includes the lines “Somebody save me, me from myself/I’ve spent so long living in Hell/They say my lifestyle is bad for my health/It’s the only thing that seems to help.”
Testifying in favor of new legislation to address fentanyl overdoses, Jelly Roll told Congress last year that a passenger jet’s worth of synthetic opioid users die every day, often relatively unnoticed, in the United States.
The deaths don’t capture the attention of a plane crash because the people who died are less valued, he said. “America has been known to bully and shame drug addicts,” he told federal lawmakers in January 2024.
Jelly Roll said he’s doing his part for those entangled in drugs and the justice system.
“I’m a guy that proves it’s never too late to change,” he said on the podcast.
The Associated Press contributed.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tennessee softball’s opponent for the Women’s College World Series semifinals is set.
The No. 7 seed Lady Volunteers (49-10) will face No. 2 Texas (49-12) at Devon Park on June 1 (noon ET, ESPN). Tennessee and Texas played each other in their WCWS opener on May 28. Tennessee won 6-3.
In the previous matchup, Tennessee used both of its top two pitchers, Karlyn Pickens (15-7, 1.58 ERA) and Sage Mardjetko (16-2, 1.06 ERA). Mardjetko started and allowed just one hit in the first four innings. Pickens finished the game, allowing four hits and three runs but still recording the save.
“Knowing we’ve got to make quicker adjustments, we’ve seen them already,” Texas infielder Katie Stewart said of potentially facing Pickens and Mardjetko again. “Still knowing they’re a really good pitching staff and they’re going to bring it. Just being ready for that. I think just going back, watching film, looking at how we got out and building off that.”
Stewart, the SEC Player of the Year and Texas’ leader in batting average, home runs and RBIs, went 0-for-3 in that first game.
Texas coach Mike White is hopeful that the Longhorns’ familiarity with Pickens and Mardjetko from just a few days prior will help them “pick up where they left off.”
All three of Texas’ runs came in the later part of the game, with the Longhorns scoring off a throwing error and a two-run homer hit by Leighann Goode.
However, he also noted that Tennessee has another talented pitcher in Erin Nuwer (15-1, 0.99 ERA), whom the Longhorns could face for the first time.
“Well, it won’t help us if they throw Nuwer at us,” White said. “They have another one that’s out there that’s pretty good. We’re not forgetting her as well.”
Nuwer hasn’t pitched since Game 2 of the super regionals against Georgia, when she allowed two hits, two hit-by-pitches but no runs in 1⅓ innings. Nuwer’s last start was a complete game against Northern Kentucky in regionals on May 15.
“They have the luxury of us having to beat them twice,” White said. “These pitchers are so good now, they’re able to study what we did, what they did. It becomes that cat-and-mouse game of strategy. That’s what we love about the game, is all the strategy, kind of pitching nuances of the game. It’s going to be a fun matchup.”
Tia Reid covers Jackson State sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at treid@usatodayco.com and follow her on X @tiareid65.
Tennessee
Nashville’s Eastpoint Neighborhood groundbreaking marks largest affordable housing project in Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville’s newest neighborhood is starting to take shape. The Fallon Company broke ground on the Eastpoint Neighborhood, which developers say is the largest affordable housing project and investment in Tennessee right now.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell says the mixed-use development is designed to benefit all families, accommodating incomes from $20,000 to $80,000 a year. In addition to housing, the development will include upgraded parks and green space, on-site childcare, and retail space.
“This is gonna be how we build Nashville’s next great neighborhood,” O’Connell said.
“We’ll have upgraded parks and green space, it will literally have on-site childcare here,” O’Connell said. “Basically all the ingredients that happen in a great neighborhood are going to be here.”
The development comes as many Nashville families struggle to make ends meet.
“They’re working jobs that are $10, $12 an hour jobs and they cannot afford basic living expenses,” Tony Turntine said.
Turntine and his family are success stories of UpRise Nashville’s free career training program. Through that experience, he has seen firsthand how getting to a better life requires studying, working, mentorship — and help with housing.
“The affordable housing that gives them an opportunity to come out of some of the really lower income neighborhoods they’ve been in and have better, quieter, more wholesome places to live,” Turntine said.
“If people can afford a better opportunity, we see everyone blossom from it. It’s a great day,” Al Brady with UpRise said.
Turntine says the tough choices Nashville families face are real.
“Whether I’m gonna pay the car out or whether I’m gonna get food for the kids,” Turntine said.
Now living and thriving in a new opportunity, Turntine has made it his mission to help others get there too.
“We’re living in a better neighborhood now — we actually just moved last weekend to a house twice the house of what we were in before,” Turntine said. “When you make different choices in life, that gives you different opportunities.”
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Amanda.Roberts@NewsChannel5.com
This story was reported on-air by Amanda Roberts and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
101st Airborne veterans get Purple Hearts years after an insider attack
As we honor those who have served our country and made the ultimate sacrifice, it is also heartening to see the military right a wrong. Chris Davis brings us the moving story of a Purple Heart ceremony two decades in the making. It’s worth a watch.
A heartfelt thanks to all who bravely serve.
– Carrie Sharp
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A new Tennessee law aimed at protecting utility customers from the growing energy demands of data centers will take effect in July.
The legislation comes as more than 60 data centers power artificial intelligence and other cyber operations across the state, with about one-third located in the greater Nashville area. As the race to build and power AI infrastructure accelerates nationwide and globally, Tennessee lawmakers say they’re working to ensure ratepayers are not saddled with the added costs of serving these massive facilities.
“We want to have data centers. But we want to put guardrails around that to protect our ratepayers,” said state Rep. Ed Butler, R-Rickman, during a legislative committee hearing in March.
Under the new law, data centers must pay for any new infrastructure required to support their operations, including substations and other power-related upgrades. Utilities are prohibited from passing those costs on to residential and business customers.
“In the rural areas they’re putting a lot of these. And we have had a lot of increased utility bills,” said state Rep. Dennis Powers, R-Jacksboro, during the same March committee hearing on the legislation.
Powers questioned if data centers could be contributing to ratepayer costs. That question wasn’t clearly answered. Regardless, legislators voted the measure through, and Gov. Bill Lee signed it into law to help prevent that from happening.
“If there was a substation that was needed to be put in to provide power for this data center, then the data center would pay for the substation,” Butler said during the hearing.
As communities across Tennessee consider proposals for new data centers, and new laws to regulate (or contain) them, some local leaders remain opposed to bringing the facilities to their areas.
“I don’t think they fit in Robertson County, and definitely not in my community,” said Cedar Hill Mayor John Edwards, who is proposing a two-year moratorium on data centers in his city.
Electric providers and utilities are also preparing for future demand. The Tennessee Valley Authority reports data centers currently account for about 18% of its industrial power load, a figure that’s predicted to potentially double by 2030.
The new law also allows utilities, including TVA, to establish a separate customer or rate class specifically for data centers, providing an additional safeguard against shifting costs to other customers.
As energy demand continues to surge, state lawmakers say the goal is to ensure Tennessee stays competitive, while families and businesses do not see higher electric bills because of data center expansion.
Data center advocates, meanwhile, say many facilities generate much of their own power on-site and use advanced cooling systems that require little or no water.
If TVA moves forward with creating a separate customer or rate class for data centers, FOX17 will continue to follow those developments.
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