Homicides and murders both dropped in 2024, data from the Memphis Police Department said.
And, days into the new year, a Shelby County General Sessions Court judge has offered his resignation.
Here’s what was on the docket at the end of 2024, and the start of 2025.
Homicides drop over 25% in 2024, MPD data indicates
There were 100 fewer homicides in 2024 than there were in 2023, data shared by MPD showed.
According to numbers as of Jan. 1, there were 297 total homicides in 2024. Of those homicides, 243 were investigated as murders. In 2023, MPD said there were 397 homicides, of which there were 344 murders.
The drop marks a sharp decline after a record number of killings in 2023 — reflecting more than a 25% drop in total homicides and a nearly 30% drop in murders.
Aggravated assaults, per Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission data from the first three quarters of 2024, were relatively level with last year’s numbers. Law enforcement officials have often tied the two crime categories, describing some aggravated assaults as “unsuccessful homicides.”
General Sessions Judge Bill Anderson to retire
Shelby County General Sessions Court Judge Bill Anderson will retire from his role on March 1, he said in a letter to County Mayor Lee Harris that was obtained by The Commercial Appeal.
Anderson, in the letter dated Dec. 30, 2024, said that he and his wife had agreed that he would retire in 2025.
Shelby County General Sessions Court Judge Bill Anderson stands outside his courtroom to speak to press about a lawsuit he is a named defendant in. Anderson was sued in his official capacity as a judge after a state law went into effect preventing judges from considering a defendant’s ability to pay when setting bail.
“This will end my fifty-one-year career in the criminal justice system, beginning as a counselor, then an attorney and culminating in this judicial position,” Anderson wrote. “I will not ever run for, nor accept an appointment as a judge in the future. At age seventy-one, my work is done.”
Anderson faced mounting political scrutiny for bail decisions in the year leading to his resignation. Those pressures were not mentioned in Anderson’s letter to Harris.
Anderson first started serving in his role in 2010 and then was elected in 2014. He won reelection in a landslide in 2022. In addition to his role on the General Sessions Division 7 bench, he also oversaw Shelby County Veterans Court.
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Latest in Memphis’ biggest cases
Ja Morant, the star Memphis Grizzlies player, is set to have his case back in court next week. Now in its third year, the civil case brought by a teen that Morant punched during a pick-up basketball game could be nearing a close.
The case, which has now seen a judge rule that Morant can claim self-defense, now rests in the hands of the teen’s attorneys. In the upcoming hearing, Joshua Holloway’s attorneys will have to prove that Morant did not act in self-defense.
A new trial date is likely to be set in the Tyre Nichols civil case as well. After remaining mostly dormant while the federal trial against the five officers accused of beating Nichols concluded, a flurry of filings has rejuvenated it.
Attorneys will be in court on Jan. 3 to discuss a new scheduling order, along with arguments over whether a new amended complaint and extended discovery will be allowed.
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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis crime: 2024 sees a steep drop in the number of homicides
