Reporter Tom Pappert: Allowing Judges to Deny Bail Outside Capital Crimes ‘Common Sense’ to Enhance Law and Order in Tennessee

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes Tennesseans will see Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 25, a constitutional amendment that would allow judges the option to deny bail to defendants accused of crimes outside capital offenses, as a “common sense way to restore and enhance law and order” in the state.

SJR 25 would modify the Constitution of Tennessee to allow judges to refuse bail to defendants accused of capital offenses, acts of terrorism, second degree murder, aggravated rape of a child, aggravated, rape, and grave torture, as well as those who face charges for which the defendant “could not be released prior to the expiration of at least eighty-five percent of the entire sentence imposed.”

On Monday, the Tennessee Senate passed SJR 25 by a 23-6 vote. The legislation now heads to the Tennessee House of Representatives where it must pass by a two-thirds majority in order to be presented to voters on the 2026 statewide general election ballot for Tennesseans to pass or reject.

In the case SJR passes the Tennessee House and makes its way to voters in 2026, Pappert said he believes Tennesseans will vote in approval of amending the state constitution.

“I think most folks understand this is a common sense way to restore and enhance law and order in Tennessee. This is something that’s been done in half the union. There’s some variance of it in 40 to 45 states. It’s time for Tennessee to join them,” Pappert explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

“Again, this isn’t really about the rural parts of the state. This is about the big cities. This is about giving prosecutors and judges the tools they need to keep their big cities safe. This is something that I think as Nashville grows, as Memphis grows, I think even Democrats are going to understand we’ve got to do something to make sure we stay safe as we experience this wonderful economic growth. Good things happen because of it, but also it attracts crime,” Pappert added.

Pappert further pointed to comments from Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), explaining that allowing judges to refuse bail to defendants in certain cases is essentially about “modernizing” the state constitution to reflect modern times.

“It was interesting, Jack Johnson in the Senate said at the time the Tennessee constitution was written, stealing a horse was a capital offense. There were many more capital offenses than the Supreme Court decided there would be in and I believe it was the 1960s when they decided that only first degree murder would be a capital offense,” Pappert explained.

“So this is really about modernizing legislation, modernizing the constitution rather in a way that I think other states were able to simply by being admitted to the union later and in other cases were able to do simply because the states grew faster earlier than Tennessee and it became apparent it was needed,” Pappert added.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.