Victor S. (Torry) Johnson, III

Biography

Victor S. (Torry) Johnson III served as the elected District Attorney General of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee for more than twenty-six years before retiring at the conclusion of his third full term in August of 2014.

He received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and returned to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University Law School. After graduation, he was a law clerk to the late Hon. William E. Miller of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then joined the District Attorney’s Office in Nashville where he spent six years handling a wide variety of criminal cases. He established and headed up the Special Prosecution Unit that focused its efforts of the arrest and conviction of career offenders. After three and a half years with a local law firm, he re-joined the District Attorney’s Office until his appointment as District Attorney.

As District Attorney, he developed special units that focused on child sexual and physical abuse, domestic violence, complex drug cases, drunk driving, quality of life crimes, and cold case homicides. He also devoted considerable resources to help and support crime victims while in the court system.

During his career as District Attorney, he held leadership positions with the National District Attorneys Association and the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference and was a member of the Boards of Directors of both the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations. He served on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on the Federalization of Criminal Law, and currently serves on the steering committee of the Tennessee Criminal Justice Reinvestment Task Force. Over the years, he has been recognized with a number of awards for his contributions to victims’ issues, and the legal profession. The Victor S. Johnson III Nashville Children's Alliance was recently renamed in his honor; the organization serves the victims of child physical and sexual abuse.

Areas of expertise: Criminal law, criminal procedure, prosecution ethics