<body><div><p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee recused himself Friday from Andrew Hayes’ wrongful conviction case.</p><p>Coffee recused himself Friday from the proceedings, which have been delayed for months.</p><p>Coffee was accused of failing to be impartial during Hayes’ wrongful conviction hearing in August. </p><p>Hayes’ attorneys did not believe Coffee was giving their client a fair chance at getting out of prison, even with new evidence and testimony pointing to his innocence. </p><p>That August hearing happened after five postponements, including a June delay caused by courthouse flooding. Months have passed since the hearing with no movement in the case.</p><p>“I’m going to grant the petition,” Judge Coffee told Hayes and his legal team from the Tennessee Innocence Project, “Because we have to avoid even an inference of impropriety. There’s no subjective prejudice on this court at all. In fact, I could have denied this request without even giving you a hearing. All this had done is delay your case, Mr. Andrew Hayes.”</p><h2>Hayes’ conviction</h2><p>Hayes has been in prison since 2010, convicted of murdering 55-year-old Danny Harris in a Cordova apartment back in 2007.</p><p>The Tennessee Innocence Project has worked for years to free him. </p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=34UJDy_1GpkqbC000" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=34UJDy_1GpkqbC000" width="1300" height="730" ><figcaption>Andrew Hayes was wrongly convicted of the 2007 murder of 55-year-old Danny Harris in a Cordova apartment. (WMC)</figcaption></figure><p>The group describes Hayes as a “man with an intellectual disability” who was “interrogated for 27 hours before confessing” to a “crime the physical evidence contradicts.”</p><h2>District attorney’s review</h2><p>Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said his Justice Review Unit determined in January that Hayes is innocent.</p><p>The unit found that it was Tammy Vance and her daughter, Sarah Lucas, who killed Harris. </p><p>Vance died in prison while serving a life sentence for Harris’ death. </p><p>Her daughter was later charged but died in February of this year before her scheduled arraignment.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1Qtxb5_1GpkqbC000" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1Qtxb5_1GpkqbC000" width="1300" height="730" ><figcaption>Tammy Vance and her daughter, Sarah Lucas (TDOC/Stephens County Sheriff's Office))</figcaption></figure><p>Coffee questioned the Justice Review Unit’s involvement and the DA’s power to challenge the conviction, saying the state attorney general’s office is the appropriate agency to ask for Hayes’ release. </p><p>Mulroy pushed back on that.</p><p>“Our responsibility is not just to make sure that guilty people get punished, but also equally important to make sure that innocent people are not wrongfully punished,” Mulroy told Action News 5, “We look forward to continuing to litigate this case and fulfilling our ethical responsibility under rule 3.8, which is to take appropriate action to correct miscarriages of justice, and the conviction of Andrew Hayes for this murder is definitely one of those.”</p><h2>Other issues involving Coffee</h2><p>In October 2023, Judge Coffee was ordered to recuse himself from the Young Dolph murder case. </p><p>The Tennessee Court of Appeals found he restricted suspect Justin Johnson’s phone and visitation privileges without a proper hearing. Johnson had recorded a rap song in jail, and Judge Coffee reportedly engaged in inappropriate communication with the chief jailer before ordering the restrictions.</p><p>A Daily Memphian investigation in July also found Judge Coffee missed 40% of his scheduled court days this year. </p><p>Attorneys, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it caused a slowdown, frustrating victims’ families.</p><h2>What happens next</h2><p>Hayes’ case has been postponed at least five times, including once when the Shelby County Courthouse flooded in June.</p><p>The court clerk will now reassign the case to a new judge, picked at random.</p><p>DA Mulroy said it is not unusual for these cases to drag on for years, calling it “an unavoidable part of the system.”</p></div></body>

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee recused himself Friday from Andrew Hayes’ wrongful conviction case. Coffee recused himself Friday from the proceedings, which have been delayed for months. Coffee was accused of failing to be impartial during Hayes’ wrongful conviction hearing in August.

Judge recuses self while wrongfully convicted man remains in prison

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee recused himself Friday from Andrew Hayes’ wrongful conviction case. Coffee recused him

Judge recuses self while wrongfully convicted man remains in prison

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