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| Tuesday, July 12, 2011 |
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Survey: Media serves as 'watchdog on government'
Americans strongly support the idea of a free press as a watchdog on government, despite concerns by many about bias in news reports, according to the 2011 State of the First Amendment national survey conducted by the First Amendment Center and released today.
In the national survey conducted in June, 76 percent agreed it is important for a strong democracy that the news media act as an independent "watchdog" over government on behalf of the public. However, 66 percent disagreed with the statement: "The news media try to report the news without bias."
In addition, the survey found strong support for the concept of "shield laws" with 75 percent said journalists should be able to keep sources confidential, the highest level of support in the survey's results over the last decade.
Link to the survey and read about it
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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 or to obtain a text version of each opinion, 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 the TBA's Membership Central.
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You can obtain full-text versions of the opinions two ways. We recommend that you download the Opinions to your computer and then
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to your computer. 2) 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.
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ALONZO FELIX ANDRES JUAN v. STATE OF TENNESSEE
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Alonzo Felix Andres Juan, Appellant, Pro Se.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy Wilber, Assistant Attorney
General, and William H. Cox, III, District Attorney General,for the appellee, State of
Tennessee.
Judge: WELLES
In 1992, the Petitioner, Alonzo Felix Andres Juan, was convicted of first degree murder and
theft of property of a value of $600.00. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of life
imprisonment and eleven months and twenty-nine days. This Court affirmed his convictions
on direct appeal. See State v. Alonzo Felix Andres Juan, No. 03C01-9211-CR-00382, 1993
WL 310702 (Tenn. Crim. App., Knoxville, Aug. 17, 1993), perm. to appeal denied, (Tenn.
Dec. 6, 1993). The Petitioner filed a petition for error coram nobis relief in September 2010,
however, the error coram nobis court summarily dismissed his petition without conducting
an evidentiary hearing. After our review, we affirm the summary dismissal of the petition.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/juana_071211.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JEREMY CURTIS WELLS
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
J. Liddell Kirk, Knoxville, Tennessee (on appeal), and Raymond Mack Garner, District
Public Defender (at trial), for the appellant, Jeremy Curtis Wells.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Meredith Devault, Assistant Attorney
General; Michael L. Flynn, District Attorney General; and Matthew Dunn, Assistant District
Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: THOMAS
The Defendant pled guilty to promoting the manufacturing of methamphetamine, a Class D
felony, with the length and manner of service for the sentence left to the discretion of the trial
court. The trial court sentenced the Defendant as a Range I, standard offender to a four-year
sentence of split confinement, with nine months to be served in the Blount County Jail and
the remainder of the sentence on enhanced supervised probation. In this appeal as of right,
the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in imposing the maximum sentence and in
determining the manner of service for his sentence. Following our review, we affirm the
judgment of the trial court. However, we remand the Defendant's case with direction to the
trial court to correct the judgment to reflect that the Defendant is serving his nine-month
period of confinement in the Blount County Jail, not the Tennessee Department of
Correction.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/wellsj_071211.pdf
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| TODAY'S NEWS |
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Passages
Legal News
Upcoming
Disciplinary Actions
TBA Member Services
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| Passages |
| Memphis Dean Emeritus Jim Smoot dies |
| James R. Smoot, emeritus dean and professor of law at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, died this morning. He was 64. He was a 1974 graduate of Yale Law School. He came to the U of M in 1998 and served as dean from 2004 to 2008.
A memorial service and reception to honor his contributions to the law school and the greater legal community will be Aug. 8 at 5 p.m. at the school in downtown Memphis.
A fund has been established in his memory. Contributions may be sent to the University of Memphis Foundation, Department 238, U of M Foundation, P.O. Box 1000, Memphis, TN 38148-0001, or made online here. |
Learn more from the University of Memphis
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| Shelbyville native Rick Taylor dies at 58 |
| Samuel Richard "Rick" Taylor Jr., 58, of Waukegan, Ill., a Shelbyville native, died July 5.
He was a 2002 graduate of
Marquette University Law School and is buried in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Shelbyville. |
Read his obituary in the Times-Gazette
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| Legal News |
| Against odds, Chattanooga attorney thrives, inspires |
| Amanda Ray practices law in Chattanooga -- against all odds, since at 14 she was a poor, single mother with a rather bleak-looking future ahead. She buckled down and focused on her son and her studies, graduating from high school as valedictorian. She then
received a full scholarship to the University of Memphis Law School and graduated in May 2010. Ray now works as an attorney in the litigation department of Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel. |
Read her inspiring story on Chattanoogan.com
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| 10 percent of Waller partners gone since 2009 |
| Lawyers around Nashville have been changing jobs in large numbers for the past two years, but no where is it more noticable than at the city's largest firm. NashvillePost.com digs into this
"striking trend," noting that since December 2009, 10 partners at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis have exited for similar work at other large local firms or the area offices of regional players, or have launched their own businesses. That amounts to about 10 percent of Waller's partner roster. |
Read the story
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| Interest in Criminal Court clerk seat begins |
| Former Metro/Nashville Vice Mayor Howard Gentry says he's pursuing the Davidson County Criminal Court clerk position, soon to be vacated by the retiring David Torrence. Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors will give notice of the vacancy at the council's July 19 meeting. After that, citizens will have seven days to submit replacement nominations. The nominations will then be sent to the Nashville Bar Association, which polls its members and offers recommendations. |
The City Paper reports
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| Job market for in-house lawyers is bad ... and good |
| According to David Bargman, president a New York-based legal recruiting firm,
in-house lawyers have fared very poorly in The Great Recession. "The only ones who are successful, by and large, are the very senior attorneys," he says, "people who command business already, people who are in charge of things like compliance, maybe, but by and large there's not much of a market."
But not all the news is bad. It just depends on who you ask. |
Law.com explores it
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| 'Sister Wives' family to sue Utah over polygamy laws |
| Kody Brown -- along with his family of four wives and 16 children, who star in the reality TV show "Sister Wives" -- plans to file a lawsuit in federal court in Utah on Wednesday. The family members say the state's anti-bigamy law is unconstitutional and that Supreme Court precedent backs them up.
Their lawyer, Jonathan Turley, says the state is persecuting model citizens for living out their religious values. |
NPR has details
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| 3 nominated for D.C. Superior Court |
| President Obama announced three nominees Monday evening to fill vacancies on the District of Columbia Superior Court, including a public defender, magistrate judge and private practice attorney. |
The Blog of Legal Times reports
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| Upcoming |
| Find out more about TJC at free event |
| The Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) will host a casual coffee-and-information session on July 27, from 8 to 9 a.m. to explain its work on behalf of Tennessee families and how to get involved in supporting the efforts of the nonprofit law and advocacy firm. The public is invited to attend this free event at the TJC, 301 Charlotte Ave., Nashville 37201. |
Learn more
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| Disciplinary Actions |
| Memphis lawyer reinstated |
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Memphis lawyer Michael Shannon Colley was reinstated to the practice of law
on July 8. He had been suspended for failing to pay his 2010 and 2011 Board
of Professional Responsibility registration fee and filing his 2010 IOLTA
compliance statement. No further order of the court was required for his
reinstatement once he complied with the requirements and paid associated
late penalties.
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| TBA Member Services |
| Let JobLink help you with your next career move |
| A career service for Tennessee attorneys and law students, TBA JobLink is a job seeking and recruitment tool available at no charge. Whether you have a position to fill or are seeking employment, this site will guide you through a simple process to post your information.
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Visit the site
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Questions, comments: Email us at TBAToday@tnbar.org
About this publication: Today's News is a compilation of digests of news reports of interest to Tennessee lawyers compiled by TBA staff, links to digested press releases, and occasional stories about the TBA and other activities written by the TBA staff or members. Statements or opinions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Tennessee Bar Association, its officers, board or staff.
© Copyright 2011 Tennessee Bar Association
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