The Impact of Tennessee's 51 Year Mandatory Minimum Law

In 1996, 16-year-old Almeer Nance was an accomplice in an armed robbery in Knoxville, Tennessee during which 20-year-old Robert Manning shot and killed a worker. Despite the fact that Nance didn’t commit the murder, he was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to a minimum of 51 years in prison under Tennessee’s strict mandatory minimum laws. The other accomplice in the case, a white woman, only spent one year in prison for her involvement in the robbery.

For "51 Years Behind Bars," a new documentary from Al Jazeera English’s "Fault Lines," correspondent Josie Duffy Rice and producer Jeremy Young interviewed Nance and other people connected to his case to learn more about the consequences of his lengthy sentence.

The Takeaway spoke with Josie Duffy Rice about this reporting and how it coincides with recent developments in juvenile sentencing.