Tennessee
Tennessee inmate freed after overturned conviction, 17 years in prison
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Tennessee prisoner was released Friday following a June 2023 ruling that overturned his 2007 murder conviction and life sentence. He had been in prison for nearly two decades.
Thomas Clardy was released from prison after 17 years of incarceration and nine years after the Tennessee Innocence Protect (TIP) started working to exonerate him. TIP works to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners in Tennessee.
Clardy was convicted of a 2005 murder at an auto body shop in Madison, Tennessee. The only evidence to support Clardy’s conviction was a single, cross-racial eyewitness identification, which was not made until nearly a month after the crime, according to the TIP.
“Evidence collected before the trial, but not tested until later, connected different, unrelated suspects to the scene,” the advocacy group said in a media release. “Clardy has steadfastly maintained his innocence for nearly two decades.”
In June 2023, after years of court proceedings, a federal district judge in Nashville overturned Clardy’s conviction. Judge Aleta Trauger held that Clardy was denied effective assistance of counsel at his original trial in violation of his constitutional rights, according to TIP. Trauger also said that Clardy’s original lawyer performed deficiently by failing to present expert testimony on limitations of eyewitness identifications.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, but a judge granted Clardy’s release while the appeal makes its way through the court system.
“We are pleased with the federal court’s decision to overturn Mr. Clardy’s conviction and are thrilled that he was released from prison today,” said Scott Gallisdorfer, an attorney at Bass, Berry & Sims who has worked on the Clardy case since 2019. “We firmly believe in Mr. Clardy’s innocence, and we are proud to partner with TIP as we continue the fight for his exoneration.”
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