Dial in to great CLE seminars The TennBarU Teleseminar series offers you the chance to hear leading national experts discuss timely topics from the convenience of your office or home. All TennBarU Teleseminars are broadcast via telephone at noon central time. http://www.tba.org/TennBarU    TODAY'S OPINIONS: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 Following this index are summaries of each case, including its name, first paragraph, author's name, and the names of attorneys for the parties of each opinion. 00 - TN Supreme Court 00 - TN Worker's Comp Appeals 01 - TN Supreme Court - Rules 00 - TN Court of Appeals 04 - TN Court of Criminal Appeals 00 - TN Attorney General Opinions 00 - Judicial Ethics Opinions 00 - Formal Ethics Opinions - BPR TBA members can get the full-text versions of these opinions three ways detailed below. All methods require a TBA username and password. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on-line at http://www.tba.org/getpassword.mgi Here's how you can obtain full-text version. We recommend you download the Opinions to your computer and then open them from there. Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This should give you the option to download the original document. If not, you may need to right-click on the URL to get the option to save the file to your computer. Do a key word search in the Search Link area of TBALink. This option will allow you to view and save a plain-text version of the opinion. Browse the Opinion List area of TBALink. This option will allow you to download the original version of the opinion. Howard H. Vogel Knoxville, Tennessee Editor-in-Chief, TBALink SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT DISCRETIONARY APPEALS Court: TSC-Rules http://www.tba.org/tba_files//2005/certlist90605.pdf KENNETH GAINES v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court: TCCA Attorneys: Robert Wilson Jones, District Public Defender; and John H. Parker, II, Assistant Public Defender, for the Appellant, Kenneth Gaines. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Jennifer L. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Stephanie Johnson, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WITT The petitioner, Kenneth Gaines, appeals from the Shelby County Criminal Courtâs denial of postconviction relief. Because we discern no error in the post-conviction courtâs proceedings and because the record supports that courtâs determinations, we affirm. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/gainesk9605.pdf STATE OF TENNESSEE v. BRANDON McCASLIN Court: TCCA Attorneys: Noel H. Riley, Dyersburg, Tennessee, for the appellant, Brandon McCaslin. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Seth Kestner, Assistant Attorney General; and C. Phillip Bivens, District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WELLES This is a direct appeal as of right from a jury verdict of guilty of two counts of theft of property over $1,000, both Class D felonies. The Defendant was sentenced to four years of confinement as a Range II, multiple offender. On appeal, the Defendant argues only one issue: there is insufficient evidence to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the offenses for which he was convicted. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/mccaslinb9605.pdf STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MICHAEL NASH Court: TCCA Attorneys: Tony Brayton, Assistant Public Defender, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Michael Nash. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; David H. Findley, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Tom Hoover, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WELLES The Defendant, Michael Nash, was convicted by a jury of one count of aggravated robbery. After a hearing, the trial court sentenced him as a Range II, multiple offender to twelve years in the Department of Correction. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and contends that he should have been sentenced as a Range I, standard offender. We affirm the Defendantâs conviction. We reverse the order of the trial court sentencing the Defendant as a Range II, multiple offender. We remand this matter for a new sentencing hearing http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/nashm9605.pdf STEVEN VAN TUCKER v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court: TCCA Attorneys: D. Michael Dunavant, Ripley, Tennessee, for the appellant, Steven Van Tucker. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; J. Ross Dyer, Assistant Attorney General; C. Phillip Bivens, District Attorney General; and Tracey Brewer-Walker, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: OGLE In case number 7563, the petitioner, Steven Van Tucker, pled guilty in the Lauderdale County Circuit Court to theft of property valued between five hundred and one thousand dollars, and the trial court sentenced him to four years and six months in confinement. In case number 7577, the petitioner pled guilty to burglary, car burglary, theft of property valued more than one thousand dollars but less than ten thousand dollars, and two counts of misdemeanor theft, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of four years in confinement. The trial court ordered that the sentence in case number 7577 be served consecutively to the sentence in case number 7563 for an effective sentence of eight years and six months. Subsequently, the petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief, claiming that he received the ineffective assistance of trial counsel and that his guilty pleas were not voluntarily and intelligently entered. The trial court denied the petition for post-conviction relief. Upon review of the record and the partiesâ briefs, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/tuckers9605.pdf   PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL! Feel free to forward this Opinion Flash on to anyone you know of with an e-mail address. GET A FULL-TEXT COPY OF AN OPINION! See the instructions at the beginning of this edition of Opinion Flash. JOIN THE TENNESSEE BAR ASSOCIATION! While Opinion Flash is a free service of the Tennessee Bar Association, you must be a member of the Tennessee Bar Association in order to access the full text of the opinions or enjoy the many other features of TBALink. 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