News

The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted review in eight cases. One of the two criminal cases -- from Robert Jason Burdick, dubbed "the wooded rapist" -- involves the novel question of tolling the statute of limitations with a John Doe warrant coupled with a DNA profile of an unknown offender. The second criminal case addresses the scope of appellate review in sentencing decisions where there is no transcript of the underling guilty plea. The remaining cases are civil and concern the application of the 120-day medical malpractice act notice provision to the statute of limitations under the Tennessee governmental tort liability act, proof of causation in a wrongful death action, construction of a silent consent clause in an anti-assignment contract, the lack of an effective signature in the execution of will, a choice of law question between the Federal Arbitration Act and the Tennessee Uniform Arbitration Act, and a certified question addressing immigration enforcement. The Raybin-Perkey Hot List has the details

Speaking at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Bowen School of Law, Scott Ellington – the former prosecuting attorney of the West Memphis Three – said that future legal costs of a retrial factored into his decision to agree to a plea deal with Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley. Ellington also said he was worried what an acquittal could cost the state, including potential damages the men could seek for false imprisonment. Ellington appeared at the school as part of a daylong symposium on the case. Read more in the Memphis Business Journal

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has proposed several new amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines. The proposed changes cover securities fraud, mortgage fraud, human rights offenses, drug offenses, contraband cellphones in prison, cigarette offenses, trafficking in fake Indian goods and animal crush videos. The commission must submit its proposed guideline amendments to Congress by May 1. Congress will have 180 days to act on the proposals, which will take effect Nov. 1 unless Congress votes to modify or disapprove them. ABAJournal.com has more

"I am sincerely sorry everybody is going to have to go through this again," Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood said Thursday when he ordered that Jayson Bailey, previously convicted of raping his stepdaughter, get a new trial. This case is one of many upended in the fallout from former Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner's abuse of prescription painkillers and related crimes. "If the allegations are true, it breaks my heart (for the girl). If the allegations are not true, this man is falsely incarcerated," Blackwood said. The News Sentinel has more

Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood ruled yesterday that former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner had not affirmed the jury verdict in the case of Paul Jerome Johnson Jr., found guilty in the July 2008 death of an 18-month-old child. Saying he could not serve as the so-called "13th juror" required by law to affirm verdicts, Blackwood granted Johnson a new trial. If the decision stands, it likely means that new trials also will be granted for child rapist Jayson Bailey, mall shooter William Johnson and kidnapper Tallie Lee Riley. But prosecutors disagree that Baumgartner did not fulfill the legal requirement and say they are taking the case to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The News Sentinel has more

If the new judge approved by the Washington County Commission is also approved by the state legislature, District Attorney General Tony Clark says he doesn't know where money for the related staff will come from -- or where they will sit. When the state funds new DA positions, the District Attorney General’s Conference decides what districts need those positions the most. Clark said he's requested positions in the past, but those haven't been approved for the past three years. “I have 19 employees in an area designed for probably 10,” and only one bathroom, he said. “I don’t have space for anybody else.” The Johnson City Press has more

Shelby County judicial commissioners are out of the business of holding probable cause hearings for suspects arrested by Memphis police and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office by order of the General Sessions Court. An appeal is expected. The issue arose when the Criminal Court of Appeals called into question the way some suspects are held for 48 hours before they are formally charged. The ruling came in a decision to order a new trial for a murder defendant. Learn more in the Memphis Daily News

A residential program to help jail inmates fight drug addiction and take accountability for their actions has ended after federal funding for it was slashed. The Residential Substance Abuse Treatment, or RSAT, operated in the Washington County Detention Center for nearly 12 years, but without the grant of $100,000 from the Department of Justice each year the program is over – much to the disappointment of judges and local law enforcement. "We had about 300 successfully graduate from RSAT," Sheriff Ed Graybeal said Monday. "We were the only one in the state still operating the program at a county facility." The Johnson City Press has more

Gov. Bill Haslam announced Monday a budget amendment that includes funding for a more rapid decrease in a food tax cut and extra money for local jails. Increasing the state's daily payment to local jails by $2 a day is designed in part, Haslam says, to help break an impasse over his proposal to require incarceration for repeat domestic violence offenders. The $4 million jails reimbursement provision is the most expensive item in Haslam's budget plan. He also announced that weekend negotiations resulted in an agreement from the Tennessee State Employees Association to support his plan to overhaul state civil service rules. The Tennessean has this AP story

Greene County leads the state in fees collected from defendants who are assigned court-appointed lawyers, the Greeneville Sun reports. General Sessions Court Judge Kenneth Bailey Jr. said he and Criminal Court Judge John Dugger Jr. make sure that defendants pay their fair share and do not burden taxpayers. "I feel like especially if people can find the money to bond out of jail, they need to find the money to pay for their appointed attorney," Bailey said.

Tennessee is among 23 states that have sweeping self-defense laws like Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law that has come into focus with the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin outside of Orlando. In 2005, Florida became the first state to explicitly expand a person's right to use deadly force for self-defense. Under that law, and a similar version in Tennessee, deadly force is justified if a person is gravely threatened, in the home or "any other place where he or she has a right to be." There is no duty to retreat, and once self-defense is invoked, the burden is on the prosecution to disprove the claim. Pro Publica looks at the issue

The Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen will consider three recommendations from City Attorney Tom Cates to replace former senior prosecutor Joe Lee Wyatt, who resigned earlier this month after being charged with driving under the influence and refusing to submit to a breath or blood alcohol test. Of eight applicants, Cates has placed Christopher Nearn, Jennifer Nichols and Charles Bell Jr. on his short list. Nichols and Bell work in the Shelby County District Attorney General's Office. Nearn is a Collierville prosecutor who previously served as prosecutor in Bartlett City for nine years. He focuses on litigation, family, insurance, personal injury and mediation in private practice at Waldrop, Barnett, Lazarov & Nearn PC. Learn more about the candidates in The Commercial Appeal