David Michael Dunavant (born 1970) is an American lawyer who served as the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for the Western District of Tennessee from 2017 to 2021. He formerly served as the District Attorney General for the 25th Judicial District in Tennessee from 2006 to 2017.

Education and legal career

Dunavant received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

in 1992 and his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

University of Mississippi School of Law The University of Mississippi School of Law, also known as Ole Miss Law, is an ABA-accredited law school located on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The School of Law offers the only dedicated aerospace law curr ...

in 1995.

Career

Dunavant worked as a lawyer at the firm of Carney, Wilder & Dunavant from 1995 to 2006. From 2006 to 2017, Dunavant served as District Attorney General for the 25th Judicial District in Tennessee.

United States Attorney

In June 2017, Dunavant was nominated by President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

to become the

for the Western District of Tennessee. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on September 14, 2017; becoming the chief law-enforcement officer for the 22 counties that make up Tennessee's western judicial district, which includes the

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

area. According to Ryan J. Reilly in ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'', Dunavant is "an unflinching critic of criminal justice reformers." Dunavant

tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, "The U.S. does have a very large prison population: not because too many innocent people are incarcerated; but because too many people commit serious, usually violent crimes. That’s why most people are imprisoned in America. Period. Full stop." He criticized

Alice Marie Johnson Alice Marie Johnson (born May 30, 1955) is an American criminal justice reform advocate and former federal prisoner. She was convicted in 1996 for her involvement in a Memphis cocaine trafficking organization and sentenced to life imprisonment. I ...

, a 64-year-old federal prisoner whose sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018 to time served, after Johnson had been imprisoned for 21 years of a life sentence for involvement in a cocaine trafficking operation. Dunavant opposed a request by Johnson to end her term of supervised release; he called Johnson a drug " kingpin" and said, "Uninformed members of the public continue to celebrate her criminality." On February 8, 2021, he along with 55 other Trump-era attorneys were asked to resign. On February 10, Dunavant announced his resignation, effective February 28.

References

External links

Biography at U.S. Department of Justice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunavant, David Michael 1970 births Living people People from Millington, Tennessee United States Attorneys for the Western District of Tennessee University of Tennessee alumni University of Mississippi School of Law alumni 21st-century American lawyers