Child support variance rule retained The Department of Human Services has retained its 15 percent income change variance criterion for seeking a modification of child support orders that were set to expire on Dec. 31. The action came by emergency rule and deletes the provision that could have led to a flood of modification petitions tied to the operation of the new income shares model. The emergency rule is effective immediately. Other recommended changes to the child support guidelines are expected shortly based upon work of the department's advisory committee. http://www.tba2.org/tbatoday/news/2005/childsupport_12_2005.pdf    TODAY'S OPINIONS: Tuesday, December 13, 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 00 - TN Supreme Court - Rules 00 - TN Court of Appeals 04 - TN Court of Criminal Appeals 01 - 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 JAMES DUBOSE v. TONY PARKER, Warden, STATE OF TENNESSEE Court: TCCA Attorneys: James DuBose, Pro Se. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Seth P. Kestner, Assistant Attorney General; and Phillip Bivens, District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WELLES The Defendant, James DuBose, appeals the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Defendant, serving a sentence of life in prison for first degree murder, raises four issues on appeal: 1) that the claims raised in his petition for habeas corpus relief were not previously adjudicated; 2) that his judgment of conviction is void because his indictment failed to allege an offense; 3) that his judgment of conviction is void because it is based on an unconstitutional statute; and 4) that the trial court erred in failing to appoint counsel for his habeas corpus proceedings. Finding the denial of the Defendant’s petition was appropriate, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/dubosej121305.pdf JERRY FAULKNER a/k/a JOSEPH FAULKNER v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court: TCCA Attorneys: Jerry Faulkner a/k/a Joseph Faulkner, Appellant, Pro Se. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Jennifer L. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; and William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WITT On January 27, 2004, the Shelby County Criminal Court accepted the guilty pleas of Jerry Faulkner, also known as Joseph Faulkner, the petitioner, on three counts of aggravated robbery and a single count of aggravated rape. The effective 20-year sentence was imposed to run concurrently with another state sentence and “all Federal convictions.” On April 13, 2004, the petitioner, who was incarcerated in a federal facility in Memphis, filed a petition in the conviction court for a writ of habeas corpus. Because the petitioner was in federal custody, the habeas corpus court dismissed the petition, and the petitioner appealed. Following our review, we affirm the order of the habeas corpus court. http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/faulknerj121305.pdf JAMES EMMETT MOSES, JR. v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court: TCCA Attorneys: James Emmett Moses, Jr., Appellant, Pro Se. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Brian C. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General; and Elizabeth T. Rice, District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WITT The petitioner, James Emmett Moses, Jr., pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, two counts of robbery, and theft of property under $500, for which he received an effective 26-year incarcerative sentence. On direct appeal, the petitioner unsuccessfully challenged his sentences as excessive. See State v. James Emmett Moses, Jr. v. State, No. W1999-01509-CCA-R3-CD (Tenn. Crim. App., Jackson, Mar. 7, 2000) (hereinafter Moses I). The petitioner then sought and was denied post-conviction relief. See James Emmett Moses, Jr. v. State, No. W2001-01394- CCA-R3-PC (Tenn. Crim. App., Jackson, Feb. 22, 2002) (hereinafter Moses II). The petitioner subsequently filed a habeas corpus petition alleging that he received an illegal sentence pursuant to Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S. Ct. 2531 (2004), and the habeas corpus court summarily dismissed the petition. The petitioner now brings the instant appeal challenging that denial, and after a thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the lower court. http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/mosesj121305.pdf STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CURTIS PALMER Court: TCCA Attorneys: Mark Mesler, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Curtis Palmer. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Elizabeth B. Marney, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; Phillip Gerald Harris, Assistant District Attorney General; and Patience Branham, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, the State of Tennessee. Judge: WOODALL Following a jury trial, Defendant, Curtis Palmer, was convicted of first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated burglary in count one of the indictment and first degree felony murder in the perpetration of theft of property in the second count, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The trial court merged Defendant’s conviction for felony murder in count two into his conviction for felony murder in count one. In his appeal, Defendant argues (1) that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction on the charge of felony murder; (2) that he was denied his right to a speedy trial; (3) that the trial court erred in denying his motions to suppress; (4) that the trial court erred in its evidentiary rulings; (5) that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense of the charged offenses; and (6) that the prosecution engaged in prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument. After a thorough review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2005/palmerc121305.pdf The Legal Duty of Pharmacies to Allow Inspection of Methamphetamine Precursor Registries TN Attorney General Opinions Date: 2005-12-13 Opinion Number: 05-174 http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2005/OP174.pdf   PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL! 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