Two Tennessee teenagers have been released without bond after being charged with shooting a 15-year-old in the head due to the county’s new ‘progressive’ bail system.
Edio White, 18 and Conner Tucker, 15, were driving to 15-year-old Anthony Mason’s home in Memphis on Thanksgiving Day.
The pair attempted to use a staged firearm deal to rob Mason, who was seen leaving his house that morning and engaging with two people inside a vehicle.
According to police, when the deal went south, the teenagers began to struggle over the gun, with Tucker pointing a gun outside the car and shooting Mason in the head.
Mason immediately collapsed as Tucker and White, acting as getaway drive, drove off.
Two Tennessee teenagers, including 18-year-old Edio White (pictured) have been released without bond after being charged with shooting a 15-year-old in the head due to the county’s new ‘progressive’ bail system
Text messages in Mason’s phone led investigators to Tucker, who admitted to the crime and then identified White.
According to Fox 13, White admitted to driving the car with the knowledge that Tucker planned on robbing Mason.
The two have since been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted especially aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon.
White was released on his own recognizance, which has sparked outrage.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulloy, a Democrat, passed a new bail system in 2022 where people received hearings with counsel within 72 hours of arrest.
Mulloy said the changes were meant to reform a system that was ‘harder on the poor, it’s harder on minorities.’
‘This is an attempt to fix that,’ he told Local Memphis.
‘Under the old system, a judicial commissioner would make an off the top of their head determination about bail, and it was often unaffordable, and then people would languish behind the bars.’
Edio White, 18 and Conner Tucker, 15, were driving to 15-year-old Anthony Mason’s (pictured) home in Memphis on Thanksgiving Day
The pair attempted to use a staged firearm deal to rob Mason, who was seen leaving his house that morning and engaging with two people inside a vehicle. According to police, when the deal went south, the teenagers began to struggle over the gun, with Tucker pointing a gun outside the car and shooting Mason in the head
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulloy, a Democrat, passed a new bail system in 2022 where people received hearings with counsel within 72 hours of arrest
Mulloy said the changes were meant to reform a system that was ‘harder on the poor, it’s harder on minorities’
According to Fox 13, both White’s attorney and the DA’s office still recommended a $75,000 bond but Judge Bill Anderson recommended White be released on his own recognizance.
Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that ‘the judge made the ROR (released on recognizance) decision.’
Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, lashed out at the decision on X.
‘After fatally shooting a 15-year-old in the head, the Memphis man responsible for his death has been released from custody,’ she wrote. ‘He wasn’t even required to pay bond.’
Criminals belong behind bars. NOT out on the streets.
Anderson – who supervises the judicial commissioners who set bail – has staunchly defended the new system in the past.
‘Everybody has the right to bail,’ he told Action News 5 in August. ‘You cannot lock people up and throw away the key, you just can’t.’
‘As much as the public may want to, we can’t do that. We don’t have the space. We don’t have the people available to monitor that, and it’s unconstitutional.’
According to Fox 13, both White’s attorney and the DA’s office still recommended a $75,000 bond but Judge Bill Anderson (pictured) recommended White be released on his own recognizance
State Senator Brent Taylor, a Republican, is asking for a legislative investigation into Anderson’s decision in the case
Just a week earlier, Anderson let the suspect in a hit-and-run that killed a 20-year-old free on bond.
‘I’m a taxpayer also, just like you’re a taxpayer,’ said Anderson, ‘I am sick and tired of the crime problem in this city, worn out, sick and tired.’
‘But putting people in jail, locking them up and throwing away the key is not the solution. If we get sued by the ACLU for not doing what we agreed to do, it is going to cost the people of Shelby County a ton of money because the ACLU will win.’
Anderson has yet to respond to his decision to release White on his own recognizance.
State Senator Brent Taylor, a Republican, is asking for a legislative investigation into Anderson’s decision in the case.
‘To have that judge then released this defendant wanting for first degree murder to release him on his own recognizance again, absolutely pissed me off,’ he said.
‘And then it’s not just the fact that Judge Anderson’s own animus toward the bail system is influencing, I think, his decisions. But the fact that he is over the judicial commissioners also sends a signal to the judicial commissioners and influence the judicial commissioners to set low bond. So this entire situation needs to be looked at.’
White’s next hearing is scheduled for December 5.
