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Register now to attend Diversity Summit II
The Tennessee Bar Association has partnered with several other legal organizations to present "Diversity Summit II: Recruitment and Retention Solutions" on Oct. 27 at the Tennessee Bar Center in Nashville. Speakers include former ABA President Dennis Archer, Wal-Mart Executive Tom Evans and an impressive group of other panelists who will speak on their experiences in promoting diversity. Seating for this free event is limited and no registration will be accepted at the door, so register today.
http://www.tba.org/news/ds2.html
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TODAY'S OPINIONS
Click on the category of your choice to view summaries of today’s opinions from that court, or other body. A link at the end of each case summary will let you download the full opinion in PDF format. To search all opinions in the TBALink database, go to our OpinionSearch page. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on TBALink at http://www.tba.org/getpassword.mgi.
00 - TN Supreme Court
00 - TN Worker's Comp Appeals
00 - TN Supreme Court - Rules
00 - TN Court of Appeals
01 - TN Court of Criminal Appeals
06 - 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
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FARRIS GENNER MORRIS, JR. v. STATE OF TENNESSEE
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Donald E. Dawson and Paul J. Morrow, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Farris Morris, Jr.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Mark E. Davidson, Assistant Attorney
General; Jerry Woodall, District Attorney General; and Al Earls, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: WELLES
Capital Petitioner, Farris Genner Morris, Jr., appeals as of right the judgment of the Madison County Circuit Court denying his petition for post-conviction relief. In January 1997, the Petitioner was convicted after a jury trial of two counts of premeditated first-degree murder and one count of aggravated rape. The Petitioner was sentenced to death for the first degree murder of Erica Hurd. For the remaining convictions, the Petitioner received consecutive sentences of life without the possibility of parole for the murder of Charles Ragland and twenty-five years incarceration for the aggravated rape of Angela Ragland. The Petitioner's convictions and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal by the Tennessee Supreme Court. See State v. Morris, 24 S.W.3d 788 (Tenn. 2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1082 (2001). On February 6, 2001, the Petitioner filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief. The trial court appointed the Office of the Post-Conviction Defender to represent the Petitioner in the proceedings. An amended petition was filed on December 17, 2001. An evidentiary hearing was conducted in April 2004. On January 18, 2005, the trial court entered an order denying the Petitioner post-conviction relief. On appeal to this Court, the Petitioner presents a number of claims that can be characterized in the following four broad categories for this Court's review: (1) the denial of a fair post-conviction evidentiary hearing, (2) the denial of a fair sentencing hearing, (3) the ineffective assistance of counsel, and (4) the constitutionality of the imposition of a sentence of death. Following a thorough and exhaustive review of the record and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2006/morrisf_101106.pdf
Interpretation of Tenn. Code Ann. Section 71-4-502(4)
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2006-10-09
Opinion Number: 06-155
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2006/ag_06-155.pdf
Inmate Funds Accounting/Blind Vendors
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2006-10-09
Opinion Number: 06-156
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2006/ag_06-156.pdf
Regulating Crosses on Private Property
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2006-10-09
Opinion Number: 06-157
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2006/ag_06-157.pdf
Chattanooga Times Free Press as "newspaper" and/or "newspaper of general circulation"
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2006-10-09
Opinion Number: 06-157
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2006/ag_06-158.pdf
Conflicts of Interest: State and County Election Commissions
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2006-10-09
Opinion Number: 06-159
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2006/ag_06-159.pdf
Utility District Selling Infrastructure
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2006-10-09
Opinion Number: 06-160
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2006/ag_06-160.pdf
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| TODAY'S NEWS |
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Legal News
BPR Actions
TBA Member Services
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| Legal News |
| U of M fraternity accused of racism |
| The Black Student Association at the University of Memphis was scheduled to hold a peaceful demonstration against racism and racial epithets today in the wake of an alleged incident involving a black student and members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. University of Memphis freshman Marshall Simpson of Brighton, who quit SAE Friday, said members harassed him because his girlfriend is a black student. National officials of the fraternity have started an investigation.
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Read more in the Commercial Appeal
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| Odor at Justice Center traced to murder evidence |
| At the Putnam Justice Center last Thursday, workers had to hold their noses just to walk into the place. The Circuit Court clerk's office was reeking of something that smelled like an open sewer or worse. All signs pointed to the evidence vault but concerns for legal ramifications kept officials from searching there. Finally, the court clerk was sent in. The source: cans of an unidentified substance that had been used as evidence in a 2000 murder trial. |
The Cookeville Herald-Citizen has the full story
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| Mississippi blacks cited in voting suit |
| The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen Macon, Miss., for an unusual civil rights test: the first federal lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act accusing blacks of suppressing the rights of whites.
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Read more about the case in the Commercial Appeal
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| Murfreesboro deputies suspended |
| Three Rutherford County Sheriff's deputies on courthouse security duty were suspended without pay for their handling of a courthouse visitor in late August whom they suspected of being drunk.
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The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal has the details
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| Grant renewal funds DUI prosecutor |
| The state has renewed a grant for the 17th Judicial District Attorney General to continue funding an assistant prosecutor specializing in drunk driving cases. The grant will pay the salary of Assistant District Attorney Richard Cawley to prosecute cases in Bedford, Marshall, Lincoln and Moore counties. Statewide, $3.2 million in grants has been awarded to local judicial districts.
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The Shelbyville Times Gazette has more
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| Successful TBA outreach at Nashville School of Law |
| Nashville School of Law students came out in force for this year's TBA student outreach event on Monday and Tuesday nights. With TBA members and staff on hand to talk about the value of TBA membership, 40 students joined for the first time or renewed their student membership. TBA will be conducting similar outreach events at the University of Tennessee College of Law on Oct. 19 and 20; the University of Memphis Law School on Oct. 26; and the Vanderbilt University Law School on Oct. 31.
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| BPR Actions |
| Kingston lawyer suspended |
| Thomas Alva Austin, a Kingston lawyer, was summarily suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court on Oct. 6 after pleading guilty to the serious crime of extortion. He has been sentenced to 42 months in prison. The court also ordered that the matter be referred to the Board of Professional Responsibility for a formal proceeding to determine final discipline.
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Read the BPR's release
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| TBA Member Services |
| TBA member insurance solutions: professional liability |
| The TBA now endorses Memphis-based Clay & Land insurance as the administrator of the TBA Member Insurance Solutions: Professional Liability program. This program provides TBA members with the most comprehensive and fairly priced professional liability coverage available. Contact Clay & Land at 800-489-7668 or |
click here
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