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September, 2009

Cover Story

Is Tennessee Going to Fix Its Death Penalty?

The 2007-2008 Legislative Death Penalty Study Committee

The Survival of the Tennessee Death Penalty System Depends Upon Comprehensive Reform

Cover Story

An Odd Combination

Visitation at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for Unit 2, Death Row, is Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons. Physically that doesn't overlap with the work-week but lately it has crossed some lines in my life. At work " as editor of this magazine and co-producer of the TBA's daily electronic newsletter, TBAToday " I am...

Feature Story

Opinions for Tennessee Lawyers

Summary of United States Supreme Court's 2008 Term

The "first Monday in October" marks a new Supreme Court Term, but the Court's workload never ends. After sorting through 8,851 filings[1] (7,132, criminal[2]; 1,719, civil), mostly petitions for certiorari, the Justices chose a relatively few "cert-worthy"[3] petitions for full...

Feature Story

The Trials of Carl Still

On the night of Tuesday, May 3, 1910, two pistol shots were heard in Lonsdale, a community northwest of Knoxville. One fatally wounded Gilbert May, who died the next evening.

Gilbert May (age 27) had been dating Mamie Miles (age early 20s). A neighbor of Miss Miles, Carl Still (age late teens), had a crush on her. He was mad at May for "beating...

President's Perspective

From TYLC to TBASCUS in the Blink of an Eye

The Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (TBA YLD) has just garnered an astounding number of first-place awards in the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (ABA YLD) Annual Awards of Achievement (AOA) competition for their outstanding work in Tennessee.

People

Memphis lawyer Robert M. "Miles" Mason Sr., a frequent speaker on forensic accounting and divorce, has accepted a teaching post at the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts' Forensic Accounting Academy. Presented seven times a year in various cities around the country, the academy is an intensive, five-day program that...

But Seriously, Folks

It's Football Time in Tennessee! (Are You Ready for Some Lawsuits?)

As that noted graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, John Ward, used to say, "It's football time in Tennessee!" And as Hank Williams Jr. sings, "Are you ready for some lawsuits?"

You read that right, John Madden breath! Autumn not only means football, but also football-related lawsuits.

Book Review

Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage

By Jeff Benedict | Grand Central Publishing | $26.99 | 416 pages | 2009

Author Jeff Benedict's book Little Pink House is about what lawyers who practice eminent domain already know. Condemnation cases are about people rather than property.

Little Pink House's owner, Susette Kelo, is the perfect landowner client...

News

TBA's 4ALL Program Named Best in State, High Marks from ABA YLD

Recognition for Good Work

TSAE Awards

The Tennessee Bar Association was honored with two awards July 31 from the Tennessee Society of Association Executives. The awards recognize excellence in all areas of association management, representing the best in the state. TBA received the "Associations Advance Tennessee" award, in recognition...

Disciplinary Actions

Reinstated

The following attorneys have been reinstated to the practice of law after complying with Supreme Court Rule 21, which requires mandatory continuing legal education:
James Louis Coggin, Memphis; and Joseph Dewey Hughes, Paragould, Ark.

The following attorneys have been reinstated to the...

Paine on Procedure

The Need To Plead Affirmative Defenses

Civil Procedure Rule 8.03 requires defense counsel to plead affirmative defenses in an answer. More precisely, counsel must "set forth affirmatively facts in short and plain terms relied upon to constitute" any listed affirmative defense. And the list is not exclusive, because it ends with: "and any other matter constituting an affirmative defense."...