Bounds, convicted for 1981 murder, set for parole
The man convicted of the 1981 murder of Sherman Wright is now eligible for parole.
Donna Blackburn, executive Director of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Parole, told the Smithville Review Tuesday Gerald (J.B.) Bounds will reach a release eligibility date of Sept. 25 and a parole hearing will likely be held sometime in October.
“An actual date has not been set,” Blackburn said. “It is on the October docket” at the Southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Pikeville.
Bounds’ case will be heard by at least one, and possibly up to three members, of the Board of Pardons and Parole. At that hearing, Bounds will be given a chance to talk about his program participation while in prison and his preparation for early release. Members of the victim’s family will also be allowed to make comments. One family member has already stated objections to an early release.
There will be a vote that day and the case file will then be forwarded to the remaining members for their votes. It will take four of the seven members voting for an early release since the case is listed as a violent offense.
Bounds, a minimum security prisoner, has been in a Tennessee Department of Corrections facility since his conviction in October, 1981 when he was given a life sentence for the shooting death of Wright, a former deputy.
At the time, it was one of the longest criminal court cases in the history of DeKalb County with more than four days of testimony. It took the jury of seven women and five men almost three hours to render the guilty verdict.
The Smithville Review reported at the time, “Bounds accepted his fate with the same lack of emotion which had characterized him throughout most of the week-long trial.”
During trial, the state successfully claimed Bounds came to Smithville on Feb. 2, 1981 intending to either collect a gambling debt from Wright or kill him.
The District Attorney at the time, Buck Ramsey, claimed when Wright failed to come up with the money Bounds shot him in cold blood and left him dying in front of the Odyssey Arcade on West Broad Street in Smithville. Defense attorney Bernard Smith argued the shooting was a clear case of manslaughter.
“In this case, the cold-blooded murder of Sherman Wright called for a long sentence, and I hope we have sent a message to other people, that you can’t shoot a man down in cold blood on the streets of Smithville and expect to get away with it,” Assistant District Attorney Mickey Layne said following the verdict.