D. Michael Dunavant

David Michael Dunavant (born 1970) is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee from 2017 to 2021. He formerly served as the District Attorney General for the 25th Judicial District in Tennessee from 2006 to 2017.[1]

D. Michael Dunavant
United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee
In office
September 21, 2017 – February 28, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Joe Biden
Preceded byEdward L. Stanton III
Succeeded byJoe Murphy (acting)
Personal details
Born1970 (age 52–53)
Millington, Tennessee, U.S.
SpouseMarianne
Children1
EducationUniversity of Tennessee (BA)
University of Mississippi (JD)

Dunavant received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee in 1992 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1995.

Career

Dunavant worked as a lawyer at the firm of Carney, Wilder & Dunavant from 1995 to 2006. From 2006 to 2017, Dunavant served as District Attorney General for the 25th Judicial District in Tennessee.[2]

United States Attorney

In June 2017, Dunavant was nominated by President Donald Trump to become the United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 14, 2017; becoming the chief law-enforcement officer for the 22 counties that make up Tennessee's western judicial district, which includes the Memphis area.[2]

According to Ryan J. Reilly in HuffPost, Dunavant is "an unflinching critic of criminal justice reformers." Dunavant tweeted, "The U.S. does have a very large prison population: not because too many innocent people are incarcerated; but because too many people commit serious, usually violent crimes. That’s why most people are imprisoned in America. Period. Full stop."[3] He criticized Alice Marie Johnson, a 64-year-old federal prisoner whose sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018 to time served, after Johnson had been imprisoned for 21 years of a life sentence for involvement in a cocaine trafficking operation.[3][4][5] Dunavant opposed a request by Johnson to end her term of supervised release; he called Johnson a drug "kingpin"[6] and said, "Uninformed members of the public continue to celebrate her criminality."[4]

On February 8, 2021, he along with 55 other Trump-era attorneys were asked to resign.[7] On February 10, Dunavant announced his resignation, effective February 28.[8]

References
  1. "President Donald J. Trump Announces United States Attorney Candidate Nominations". whitehouse.gov. June 12, 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017 – via National Archives.
  2. Collins, Michael (June 12, 2017). "President Trump appoints Michael Dunavant as U.S. attorney for Western Tennessee". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  3. Reilly, Ryan J. (2020-10-16). "DOJ's Antifa Push Spurs Trump Appointee To Charge A Band's Bassist Over A Bag Of Weed". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  4. "Trump freed Alice Johnson in 2018. This week, he granted clemency to three of her friends". The Washington Post. 2020.
  5. Jeremy Diamond and Kaitlan Collins (6 June 2018). "Trump commutes sentence of Alice Marie Johnson". CNN. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  6. Downing, Kendall (10 July 2019). "US attorney fighting request by Alice Johnson to end her supervised release early". WMC Action News 5. Archived from the original on 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  7. Balsamo, Michael (February 9, 2021). "Justice Dept. seeks resignations of Trump-era US attorneys". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  8. "United States Attorney Dunavant Announces Upcoming Resignation" (Press release). Memphis, Tennessee: United States Attorney's Office. February 10, 2021.
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