STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ROYCE SCOTT EARLEY - Articles

All Content

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ROYCE SCOTT EARLEY

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Mar 6, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Tracey Vought Williams, Wartburg, Tennessee (on appeal); Ann Coria, District Public Defender; E. Kendall White, Nashville, Tennessee (at trial), for the appellant, Royce Scott Earley.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Ronald L. Coleman, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Dave Clark, District Attorney General; and Emily F. Abbot and Sarah Keith, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): MCMULLEN

The Defendant, Royce Scott Earley, confessed to multiple acts of rape against his eight- year-old daughter, and a jury subsequently convicted him of two counts of rape of a child (counts one and three), two counts of incest (counts two and four), and one count of aggravated sexual battery (count five), for which he received an effective sentence of 104 years in confinement. On appeal, the Defendant raises three issues for our review: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his confession because it was not voluntary; (2) whether the State introduced sufficient evidence to corroborate his confession for counts three through five under the modified trustworthiness standard outlined in State v. Bishop, 431 S.W.3d 22 (Tenn. 2014); and (3) whether the trial court imposed an excessive sentence.1 After review, we affirm.

Attachments: