In what appears to be the first expulsion from the chamber in state history, Tennessee’s state senate voted to remove one of their own from the chamber, after a Democratic state senator was convicted on charges of wire fraud over alleged misuse of federal grant money.
Tennessee Senator Katrina Robinson – one of three Black women, all Democrats, in the majority-white Republican-dominated chamber – called the vote a “procedural lynching” and premature, as many of the counts against her had been dropped and her sentencing hearing is still weeks away.
“I feel beat up standing in front of you guys,” she told the chamber on 2 February. “And really I didn’t prepare any words because there are no words for what this is.”
The senate voted 27-5 along party lines.
In the criminal case against her, the Memphis legislator was accused of embezzling $600,000 from a $2.2m pool of federal grant money awarded to a nursing school she operated before running for office. She has repeatedly maintained her innocence, pointing to shifting arguments among prosecutors and lack of forensic accounting she claims would exonerate her.
Prosecutors’ case began to unravel during her trial in 2021, with her initial 48 counts reduced to five. She was convicted on four counts – two wire fraud charges and two counts of misleading financial reports – though a federal judge acquitted her on the latter two of those charges in January. Her request for a new trial has been denied.
The remaining charges against her involve the use of $3,400 from wedding expenses in 2016.
Republican senators previously declined her request to delay her expulsion hearing until after her sentencing hearing, scheduled for 3 March. On Wednesday, Democratic senators renewed her request, which was voted down in the GOP-dominated chamber.
“I continued to push through this ordeal to get here every week for session, for committee, to get back to my community even when I couldn’t raise money because people thought I was a thief,” Ms Robinson said on Wednesday.
“I went in my own pocket to give to kids who were looking forward to events that normally I would have support for,” she said. “I stood out front this whole time, and I haven’t shied away from any fight, and I can’t do it here. Some of you think I would maintain my dignity … through resignation, but for me the only way to maintain my dignity is to stand here and stand up for myself, and anyone else who would go through this.”
In her defence on Wednesday, she pointed to other Tennessee state legislators who have not faced similar actions after their own criminal charges or other scandals
State senator Brian Kelsey is awaiting federal trial on campaign finance charges, and state senator Joey Hensley was disciplined by the state’s medical board for unethical opioid prescriptions.
“We throw around this term ‘moral turpitude,’” Ms Robinson said. “I ask this body, ‘What are your moral values?’”
There have been only a handful of expulsions or attempts to expel legislators in the state’s history, according to the state’s legislative librarian.
In a recent interview with the Tennessee Lookout, she said she was being held to double standards in comparison to other Republican legislators, in service of their attempts to undermine Black political power.
“Our legislature has a history, at least in this assembly, of abusing their power to pass unjust legislation that ends up in court every time. It’s the same thing when it comes to a senator who they don’t want,” she said. “They will abuse their power to get the process done and they’ll fight with the aftermath later.”
