A Tennessee Republican lawmaker is reiterating support for public hangings three years after giving a half-baked apology for calling for a return to “hanging from a tree” as a form of capital punishment.
State Rep. Paul Sherrell of Sparta said in a recent political forum in McMinnville that a “good hanging right here on the public square by the courthouse” could deter crime, the Main Street Journal reported.
Sherrell made the comment during a forum with Democratic challenger Samantha Petit in the Tennessee House District 43 race when she questioned him about his 2023 comments supporting “hanging from a tree” to execute people on death row, according to the report.
Black Caucus wants more than Sherrell pulling street name bill
He backed up the statement by saying Tennessee already can use the electric chair, if necessary, and in the wake of a second botched execution this year, he added that he favors using a firing squad if necessary or bringing back public hangings, the report says.
Asked this week how he squares the apology with his recent call to hang people on the public square, Sherrell deflected the blame to Democrats he claims accused him of using the word “lynching.” He did acknowledge he supports hangings, firing squads and electrocution to put people to death.
Democratic state Rep. Sam McKenzie, former chairman of the Black Caucus, recalled the incident clearly and said Sherrell’s words brought up images of lynchings of Black men, but he noted no one accused Sherrell of using the word.
The failed execution Sept. 30 of death row inmate Christa Pike is reviving talk about adopting alternative methods for capital punishment. Immediately after the botched execution, Gov. Bill Lee called for an outside investigation and put a hold on executions for the rest of 2026, as he prepares to leave office after two terms in mid-January 2027.
It verifies the fact that he was told to (read) that and his heart wasn’t in it, that his heart is still hard as it relates to what hanging from a tree means to a lot of people.
– Rep. Sam McKenzie, former chair, Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators
Sherrell was forced to read an apology on the House floor in March 2023 after saying during a Criminal Justice Committee meeting the state should return to “hanging from a tree” to execute death row inmates. He made the comment in support of legislation allowing death row inmates to request electrocution when problems arise with the state’s lethal injection protocol. At the time, the measure was amended to add death by firing squads, but that didn’t come to pass.
The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators wanted Sherrell to be punished, saying his flippant comment revived images of Black Americans being lynched. House Speaker Cameron Sexton declined to remove him from committees, yet the Republican caucus slapped an apology in front of him and told him to read it.
McKenzie called Sherrell’s apology “half-hearted” and said House Republican leaders sat on it for weeks amid the “Tennessee Three” hearing when the House expelled two Black lawmakers but kept one white female lawmaker for their involvement in a floor rally for new gun laws following the Covenant School shooting.
“It verifies the fact that he was told to (read) that and his heart wasn’t in it, that his heart is still hard as it relates to what hanging from a tree means to a lot of people,” McKenzie said. “It speaks to his insensitivity and the fact that he didn’t mean it. He just flat out didn’t mean it.”
Readers might recall that Sherrell had to go before the Registry of Election Finance four years ago in what is now being called the Great Biscuitgate.
Sherrell, who serves as House Republican floor leader, sounded as if he was crying during a phone interview with the Registry in May 2022, saying “Thank you and praise the Lord” when the Registry board dismissed a complaint against him for allegedly cashing checks to buy country ham biscuits for firefighters at White County volunteer fire halls. According to the sworn complaint, Sherrell would write a check for about $100, buy a biscuit for himself and promise to buy volunteer firefighters biscuits to recognize their service. The problem was that none of the volunteer firefighters ever got one measly biscuit as Sherrell pocketed the money from his campaign account, according to the complaint.
None of the evidence he presented during the Registry hearing showed how he spent the cash. The board decided against investigating the matter, claiming it was being “weaponized.”
Sherrell did admit he wasn’t perfect and said if he made a mistake he was sorry. When you’re dealing with country ham biscuits, it’s no big deal. But with executions, it’s too late to say you’re sorry if you put the wrong person to death, regardless of the method.
Whaddaya mean, they gave ya da slip?
About 25 years ago, we were sitting in a Miami Beach deli after the family and I spent a day in the sand and surf. We were starving, so I ponied up enough for the cheapest thing on the menu, a $12 hamburger (five total because a nephew was with us), which was a little steep back then.
Next thing we knew, the deli owner was giving the waiter an earful after a couple sitting near the door ran out on their tab.
“What happened!?” she screamed. “I don’t know. They gave me da slip,” he answered. “Whaddaya mean they gave ya da slip?” she said. “I don’t know. They gave me da slip,” he said. “How did they give ya da slip?” “I don’t know. They gave me da slip.”
The whole time I was wondering if we’d been warped into a “Seinfeld” episode but also thinking, “I’d like to give ’em da slip.”
Da real slip
Fast-forward a quarter-century and U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, of all people, tried to give President Donald Trump da slip before reversing course.
Technically, she declined at first to return a “blue slip,” the practice for home-state senators, signaling support for a Trump nominee to a federal judgeship in East Tennessee. The Tennessee Journal reported that Blackburn, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, blocked Trump’s nomination of Signal Mountain attorney Samuel Adkisson, a White House legal advisor, to a U.S. District Court judgeship based in Knoxville.
The Blackburn campaign didn’t respond to questions from the Tennessee Journal, which also reported that Sen. Bill Hagerty backed the nomination. The Blackburn campaign referred questions to her congressional office, which did not respond to the Lookout Thursday.
The Tennessee Bar Association reported Thursday that Blackburn returned the slip, signaling approval.
Adkisson, who holds degrees from Vanderbilt and Yale Law School, is a special assistant to Trump and White House associate counsel. He’s only 33 years old, though, which seems mighty young to be appointed to the bench for life.
And we thought Blackburn agreed with everything Trump did. Wrong. She and Hagerty both voted to certify the Biden election, even though Trump continues to claim it was stolen.
You just never know when …
Former state Rep. Jeremy Durham is resurfacing as a contributing sports editor for the Tristar Daily, a news site published by political activist Steve Gill.
Durham writes about Tennessee Vols football and Major League Baseball, according to the bio at the bottom of his columns, which says he covered sports and worked as a government editor for The Daily Beacon, a student newspaper, while attending the University of Tennessee.
It fails to mention that he was expelled from the Tennessee General Assembly in 2016 after an attorney general’s report accused him of sexually harassing 22 women at the legislature, including an intern.
The former state rep from Williamson County also had run-ins with the police in Metro Nashville where he was convicted of DUI and an assortment of charges after a wreck near Lower Broadway. He was arrested again in Florida in January 2024 on DUI charges.
It’s not clear whether he was required to write for Gill as part of any sentence. But the columns, which focus on betting lines on Vols games, aren’t too bad, though we wonder why anyone would put enough stock in Durham’s musings to bet on them.
Maybe, at last, he has found his niche.
“Don’t stop believing / Hold on to that feeling” – Journey
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