Both Sides Asked the Court to Clear Andrew Hayes. The Judge Said He Does Not Walk Out of Jail Today.

Judge Lee Coffee declined to rule on the motion the defense and the Shelby County District Attorney's office jointly support, set the next hearing for October 9, 2026, and said he needs more time with the record.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Andrew Hayes will stay in custody at least into October. At an August 26, 2026 hearing in Shelby County Criminal Court, Judge Lee Coffee declined to rule on the motion to vacate Hayes' conviction in the 2007 killing of Danny Harris, telling the courtroom, per Action News 5, "Andrew Hayes does not walk out of jail today. He does not walk out of jail tomorrow."

The 901 Report reported on August 26 that the District Attorney's office had joined the defense in asking the court to clear Hayes' sentence, a case the office itself has called a wrongful conviction. The August 26 hearing was the first test of what a court does with a motion both sides support. The answer, for now, is nothing yet.

The testimony was the day's record. Stephen Harris, the victim's son, testified that he built a relationship with Sarah Lucas and obtained her recorded statements that Hayes was not involved in his father's death, per Action News 5. Chief prosecutor Monica Timmerman testified that she would not have charged Hayes knowing what the office knows now. Hayes took the stand himself: "When I first heard her recordings, I just thought about God answering my prayers."

Judge Coffee said he needs more time to review the case materials and pointed to Hayes' previously denied appeals. The next hearing is set for October 9, 2026. Once a decision comes, either side has 30 days to appeal.

Hayes was convicted at trial and remains in custody under that conviction. The court has not vacated it, and until it does, the conviction stands as the operative legal fact. What has changed is who is asking the court to undo it.

Why It Matters for Memphis

The county's chief prosecutor's office and the defense are on the same side, and a man that office says was wrongfully convicted remains in custody with a six-week gap to the next hearing. The original investigation was the Memphis Police Department's. Whatever the court decides on October 9 or after, the record now includes sworn testimony from the office that won the conviction that it would not bring the case today.

The Transparency Gap

Who holds the authority here. One person can end this, and it is not either party. The District Attorney's office cannot release Andrew Hayes; it can only ask. The defense cannot release him. Judge Coffee alone can vacate the conviction, and on August 26 he declined to do it, citing a need for more time with a record that has been litigated for nineteen years. That is the court's prerogative and it is not improper. It is also the entire mechanism: when the prosecution and the defense agree a conviction should not stand, the only remaining check is a single judge's reading, on a timetable only he sets, of material both parties have already read and agreed about.

What has not been disclosed. What specifically Judge Coffee needs reviewed has not been stated beyond a general reference to the case materials and the previously denied appeals. Whether the defense has asked for release pending a decision, and whether the District Attorney's office would oppose it, is not on the public record. The written joint motion and the office's internal review file, the documents that produced the conclusion that this was a wrongful conviction, have not been published. Whether the Memphis Police Department has reopened or reviewed its 2007 investigation is unknown, and no one has said whether anyone at the department has been asked.

Why the gap matters, and what we are requesting. Every week Andrew Hayes remains in custody is a week the government that put him there says he should not be. That is not a rhetorical framing; it is the District Attorney's own stated position, given under oath by its chief prosecutor. The court is entitled to its time, and a careful judge reviewing nineteen years of litigation before undoing a jury's verdict is doing the job. What the public cannot currently see is the work behind the agreement: what the office found, when it found it, and what the original investigation looked like. Those documents exist and they are the difference between a case the system corrected and a case the system got wrong twice. The 901 Report is requesting the joint motion to vacate as filed, the District Attorney's office's conviction review file or equivalent internal record in the Hayes case, the transcript of the August 26, 2026 hearing, and the Memphis Police Department's investigative file in the 2007 death of Danny Harris. We will report what those records show.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.

Both Sides Asked the Court to Clear Andrew Hayes. The Judge Said He Does Not Walk Out of Jail Today.

Why It Matters for Memphis

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