Evidence — or that lack of access to it — can be detrimental to a criminal defense. In a local example, an appeal filed with the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals challenges the credibility of the witness whose testimony could make or break the case for aggravated rape against a former University of Tennessee linebacker […]
If you were arrested for a criminal offense, have you consulted with an attorney about the circumstances leading up to that arrest? Even seemingly impartial police tactics, such as traffic stops, may have vulnerability to a legal challenge. Specifically, a recent article questions whether traffic stops are racially biased. As background, a police officer generally […]
Can someone charged with a violent crime get a fair appeal? Procedural due process should be afforded to all criminal defendants. Yet a Tennessee woman’s predicament illustrates the challenges in bringing such an appeal. The woman was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, relating to the deaths of her infant twins. That conviction was […]
The road to an appeal can be long, as a recent story reminds us. Specifically, the story profiled a 63-year-old Tennessee man’s request for a new trial. The man alleges that a missing pretrial transcript was not considered by the Court of Appeals. The mistake may be traceable to the man’s first attorney, who did […]
Regardless of partisanship, the subject of law enforcement has come up in the 2016 presidential debates. A recent article suggests that even Tennessee authorities may need to take a second look into enforcement practices. Specifically, a recent federal lawsuit filing alleges that the Tennessee Highway Patrol is using a quota system for making arrests for […]
Prosecutorial misconduct recently made a magazine’s top 10 listing of civil liberties betrayals from 2015. The article described the misconduct in racial terms, citing examples of wrongful convictions obtained by police and prosecutors allegedly working together to game the jury or right the evidence. Unfortunately, even Tennessee saw its share of tampering with the criminal […]
