Tennessee Supreme Court

The Court held that Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 does not authorize correction of an illegal sentence after the sentence has expired, because the rule did not expand the scope of relief previously available through habeas corpus.

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the defendant's second-degree murder conviction, holding that the trial court properly admitted a witness's prior statement and preliminary-hearing testimony as substantive evidence and that any error concerning the witness's unavailability was harmless.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the State need not prove it made reasonable efforts to reunify parent and child as a precondition to terminating parental rights: under Tenn. Code Ann.

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals' grant of a new trial to Edward Kendrick, who was convicted of first degree premeditated murder for fatally shooting his wife and whose defense was that his rifle fired accidentally.

The Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions because his daughters’ testimony sufficiently corroborated his recorded admissions, the admissions were voluntary and did not implicate the Fifth Amendment, and any error in admitting adult-pornography evidence was harmless.

The Tennessee Supreme Court resolved an issue of first impression, holding that a trial court's credibility determinations about a witness who testifies by telephone must receive the same considerable deference given to live in-court witnesses, because telephonic testimony resembles live testimony rather than the…

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Criminal Appeals, holding that the abuse‑of‑discretion standard with a presumption of reasonableness applies to sentencing and to the grant or denial of judicial diversion when the trial court articulates its considerations, but because the trial court failed to…

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the abuse of discretion standard of appellate review, accompanied by a presumption of reasonableness, governs challenges to the imposition of consecutive sentences, extending its Bise and Caudle line to the consecutive-sentencing context notwithstanding statutory de novo-review…

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-6-101(a)(2)(C), enacted in 2004, supplies the governing standard for modifying a residential parenting schedule and abrogated any prior decision that could be read as requiring proof that a material change in circumstances could not reasonably…

The Court held that the medical impairment rating process applies in both Department of Labor proceedings and judicial workers’ compensation proceedings. It further held that the statutory presumption favoring an independent medical examiner’s rating does not violate separation of powers or due process, and that the…

The court held that Father abandoned his children by willfully failing to visit them, despite an earlier order suspending visitation, because he did not pursue reinstatement of visitation for nearly two years.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the abuse of discretion standard of review, accompanied by a presumption of reasonableness, applies to within-range sentences reflecting a proper application of the purposes and principles of the Sentencing Act, including decisions granting or denying probation or any other…

The Tennessee Supreme Court granted the State's permission appeal to decide whether the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in declaring the evidence insufficient for the defendant's convictions of especially aggravated robbery and felony murder on the ground that his confession alone evidenced the victim's backpack and…

The Court held that the statutory requirements to provide sixty days’ pre-suit notice and file a certificate of good faith in a medical malpractice action are mandatory and cannot be satisfied through substantial compliance based on a previously dismissed lawsuit.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that, after the 2005 amendments to the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989, sentences imposed by trial courts within the appropriate statutory range are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard with a presumption of reasonableness, replacing the former de novo review with a…

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the defendant's two first-degree murder convictions but set aside both death sentences and remanded for new sentencing hearings. It held that the trial court improperly admitted inflammatory hearsay concerning alleged child sexual abuse, references to the defendant's refusal to…

The Court held that the plaintiff’s strict-liability claim against the dealership was timely because that claim became available when the truck’s manufacturer was judicially declared insolvent.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that officers had reasonable suspicion, under the totality of the circumstances, to conduct a brief investigatory stop of a white Crown Victoria whose African-American male occupants matched the general description of carjacking suspects and behaved abruptly and evasively near the…

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying alimony in futuro to a forty-three-year-old wife with a college degree, good health, sixteen-plus years of stable state employment at $72,000 per year, and a slightly larger share of the marital estate, because an income…

The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to adopt the federal Twombly/Iqbal 'plausibility' pleading standard, holding that Rule 12.02(6) motions to dismiss continue to be governed by Tennessee's longstanding notice-pleading regime, under which dismissal is proper only when it appears the plaintiff can prove no set of…

The Tennessee Supreme Court reinstated the Defendant's convictions for aggravated burglary and theft of property valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000, holding that under State v.

The Court held that counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to advise Calvert that his rape convictions would carry mandatory lifetime community supervision, an additional punitive component of his sentence.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that circumstantial evidence must be weighed the same as direct evidence and expressly adopted the federal standard under which the State need not exclude every other reasonable hypothesis of innocence, displacing the old Crawford 'web of guilt' formulation for appellate review.

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the trial court and Court of Criminal Appeals, holding that the trial court erred by failing to apply the proper multi‑factor analysis required under Tenn. R.Crim. P.

The Court held that the Tennessee Title Pledge Act did not create an express or implied private right of action for pledgors seeking relief for excessive interest or prohibited fees.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-16-503(a)(1) the State need not prove the specific identity of the 'thing' a defendant altered, destroyed, or concealed, because 'thing' by definition embraces objects or entities not precisely designable.

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated the juvenile court's termination of Junior D.'s parental rights to all five children. The court held that the Department of Children's Services used reasonable efforts — efforts must be reasonable, not Herculean — to help the father address the…

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the defendant lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the commonly shared interior hallway of his condominium because residents, police, delivery personnel, service providers, and other authorized persons had regular access and no resident could exclude them.

The Tennessee Supreme Court granted review to resolve a conflict in the Court of Appeals over whether a trial court must make the statutory findings of fact and conclusions of law when terminating the parental rights of a non-opposing parent.

The court held that Tennessee's tax on unauthorized substances does not violate the protections against self-incrimination, double jeopardy, or procedural due process because the tax is civil, its payment is protected by confidentiality provisions, and taxpayers have meaningful post-assessment remedies.

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstated the defendant's aggravated child abuse conviction, holding that the circumstantial medical and custodial evidence permitted a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly, other than by accidental means, inflicted…

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that a freestanding claim of actual innocence based on new scientific evidence is cognizable in an initial petition under the Tennessee Post-Conviction Procedure Act, reversing the Court of Criminal Appeals on that issue of first impression, but it affirmed the denial of relief because…

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the post-conviction court abused its discretion in striking as hearsay the testimony of witnesses who recounted Amanda Davis' incriminating statements, because at the post-conviction hearing those statements were offered to show that trial counsel knew of potentially exculpatory…

The Tennessee Supreme Court granted review to determine how the 2005 revisions to the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989 affect the method of imposing a sentence. It held that because the amendments abolished the presumptive sentence and made enhancement and mitigating factors merely advisory, appellate courts may…

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed a Court of Appeals adjudication holding two of Dr. Stratienko's lawyers in civil contempt for filing a separate public-records suit while their interlocutory appeal was pending under a stay of "all proceedings below." The Court held that "proceedings below" means the proceedings in…

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Criminal Appeals and held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain Susan Marie Gilliam Campbell's dual Class E felony convictions for criminally negligent homicide and facilitating escape arising from the drowning of the five-year-old boy she was babysitting.

The court held that the increase in value of Husband's separately owned stock remained separate property because his employment did not substantially contribute to the stock's preservation or appreciation.

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Sabrina Lewis's convictions for criminally negligent homicide and facilitation of attempted especially aggravated robbery and her effective twenty-one-year sentence, resolving three evidentiary challenges.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that trial counsel performed deficiently by failing to object when the trial court improperly took the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal under advisement and by continuing to participate in the trial.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that a prisoner serving concurrent state and federal sentences in a federal facility may seek state habeas corpus relief to challenge his state convictions, but affirmed the summary dismissal of the petition because the petitioner failed to provide supporting documentation.