Steven Hale

Nashville

Reporting on criminal justice and public safety for @NashvilleBanner. Previously: @NashvilleScene. Author of DEATH ROW WELCOMES YOU (2024)

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Articles

ICE operation in Nashville prompts community outcry

2 days ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on Tuesday trumpeted the results of the recent operation that incited outrage, panic and confusion around Nashville. The agency, which worked alongside the Tennessee Highway Patrol to stop and question upwards of 500 drivers last week, revealed the most information to date about the operation, but left many unanswered questions about how it was carried out and who was swept up in it.
Nashville police whistleblower indicted for allegedly stealing and leaking documents

5 days ago | timesfreepress.com | Steven Hale

The former Metro Nashville Police Department lieutenant who went public as a whistleblower against the department last year was arrested Tuesday on two criminal indictments accusing him of illegally accessing and taking internal files and other documents.
Tennessee death row inmates fight lethal injection protocol

1 week ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

If Oscar Smith is executed as scheduled on May 22 at Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, he will be killed with a lethal dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. The Tennessee Department of Correction announced in December that it had finalized the new single-drug lethal injection protocol.
Local Efforts Emerge After South Nashville ICE Sweep

1 week ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

In an overnight operation last weekend, Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained dozens of people from South Nashville, promptly bussing them to out-of-state detention facilities. Families and advocates were left scrambling to identify who had been taken and where they were being held. The days since have brought sporadic reports of other ICE sweeps and detentions around the city.
Nashville police whistleblower arrested for theft and misconduct

1 week ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

The former Metro Nashville Police Department Lieutenant who went public as a whistleblower against the department last year was arrested Tuesday on two criminal indictments accusing him of illegally accessing and taking internal files and other documents.
O’Connell administration backs away from police surveillance system

2 weeks ago | nashvillepost.com | Steven Hale |Nashville Banner

Citing “what appear to be erosions in the rule of law at the federal level,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell has signaled that Metro is no longer actively pursuing a program pitched as a way to give police easier access to private surveillance footage.
O’Connell Administration Backs Away From Police Surveillance System

2 weeks ago | nashvillescene.com | Steven Hale |Nashville Banner

Citing “what appear to be erosions in the rule of law at the federal level,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell signaled on Friday that Metro is no longer actively pursuing a program pitched as a way to give police easier access to private surveillance footage.
Vicious dog cases: Nashville's legal system in action

3 weeks ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

A little more than a year ago, a West Nashville woman was walking her rat terrier, Scrappy, in her neighborhood when she encountered a German shepherd. “We didn’t make it very far until out of nowhere, the dog (I would later learn her name is Rosie) came up and started attacking Scrappy,” the woman wrote in a complaint to Metro Animal Care and Control (MACC). Rosie had jumped the front-yard fence of a nearby home. Scrappy’s owner picked him up but the German shepherd leapt up toward them.
Families face challenges getting answers to prison deaths

4 weeks ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

Just after midnight on Feb. 9, Connie Debriel received a call from the chaplain at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, the CoreCivic prison where her 25-year-old son Matthew Woodyard was incarcerated. “I regret to inform you but your son passed away,” the man said. Shocked, she asked what had happened. Debriel had spoken to her son on the phone just several hours earlier. The chaplain said he didn’t have details. She asked if he was sure he had the right person. He said yes or he wouldn’t be calling.
Grand Jury Report on MNPD Whistleblower Complaint

1 month ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

The Davidson County Grand Jury in recent months conducted its own inquiry into the whistleblower complaint brought last year against the Metro Nashville Police Department and concluded that “there is evidence of criminal and civil violations which should be meticulously investigated” by a special prosecutor, according to a forthcoming report obtained by the Banner. The jury reviewed previous whistleblower complaints and heard testimony from current officers.