Tennessee Innocence Project Treasurer: Joey Fuson

Board member Joey Fuson

Profile by Brooke Wanser

At first, all it took was a TV movie to convince criminal defense attorney Joey Fuson of his future career path.

In high school, he watched Indictment: The McMartin Trial, based on the true story of alleged sexual abuse of children at a preschool in the 1980s and 90s. All charges were eventually dropped. “I remember studying for a calculus exam thinking, ‘This is exactly what I need to do,’” Fuson recalled.

Reading “Triumph of Justice,” a book on the O.J. Simpson trials by a criminal defense attorney who represented the Goldman family, solidified his decision.

“That impacted me, as far as the realities of the criminal justice system, that it’s not always truth that prevails,” Fuson said.

Originally from Nashville, Fuson grew up in Franklin. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee in political science. There, he worked for two years on a thesis that was originally supposed to be an argument in favor of the death penalty.

But after researching it for a semester, Fuson’s understanding changed. “I was trying to do it based on the policy argument,” he said. “Then I realized all the policy considerations were against it: it’s inhumane, it doesn’t deter, it’s not cost-effective.” He also cited research on racial and economic disparities on death row.

After attending Nashville School of Law, he later co-founded Freeman & Fuson in 2009 with Mark Freeman.

Fuson specializes in criminal defense with a focus on DUI and drug crimes. He also formed the Hemp Law Group in 2018, representing individuals and small businesses in the emerging cannabis industry in Tennessee.

He is passionate about helping people recover from addiction; he’s seen friends get clean and lost friends to addiction.

Along with Freeman, Fuson owns a sober living home in Dickson, TN for those working towards rehabilitation.

As drugs continue to be legislated, Fuson said cannabis in particular is often mischaracterized as a “gateway drug.” He painted a more complex picture of addiction.

“A gateway drug is trauma, abuse, neglect,” he said, “not cannabis.”

Fuson joined the Tennessee Innocence Project Board of Directors to use his skills to serve the community. In criminal practice, “You often find yourself in the trenches, I wanted to step out and do something for the greater good,” he explained.

Fuson said the greater population may not be aware of how often wrongful convictions actually occur in Tennessee.

“People need to realize this is real. It really happens in our state, there are people sitting in jail now who are wrongfully convicted of a crime,” Fuson said. “The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realized how big of a problem it is.”

The best way to fight it? “If we’re going to get people exonerated,” he said, “we have to have the resources to do it and we need to grow the Tennessee Innocence Project.”