NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A documentary film about Tennessee death row inmate Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman will premiere on the day he was scheduled to be executed before the Tennessee Supreme Court granted a stay in December.
Abdur’Rahman (AHB’-dur-RAK’-mahn) was sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels. Police said Daniels and Norma Jean Norman were bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife at Norman’s home.
Abdur’Rahman said he was trying to cleanse the Nashville community of drug dealers who sold to children. Co-defendant Devalle Miller testified against Abdur’Rahman, although Abdur-Rahman’s attorneys have since argued that blood evidence at the scene pointed to Miller as the true assailant.
“ You Don’t Know Me ” explores Abdur’Rahman’s trial and the regrets of his attorney who blames himself for mounting a poor defense, according to a news release about the film. It will premiere April 16 at Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre.
“We felt it was time to take Abu-Ali’s story out of the justice system, where legal technicalities often override common sense and truth, and share it directly with a wide audience,” film director Jon Kent said in a news release. “We believe any fair-minded person who sees this film, no matter his or her stance on capital punishment, will recognize the gross injustice and downright absurdity of putting this man to death.”
Abdur’Rahman, 69, has been on death row for 32 years and has now seen five execution dates come and go as the courts have decided his various legal challenges. In August, a judge resentenced Abdur’Rahman to life in prison after he raised claims that racism tainted the jury selection process, but before that order could become final Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery appealed. In a statement announcing the appeal, Slatery dismissed the claims of Abdur’Rahman’s attorneys and supporters.
“Over the last 30 years Mr. Abdur’Rahman has repeatedly raised the same issues … all of which were thoroughly litigated and rejected in the state courts and on federal review through the United States Supreme Court,” a news release from Slatery said.
Abdur’Rahman’s latest execution date is on hold until the appeal of the resentencing order can be heard.
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