TERRY LYNN KING v. STATE OF TENNESSEE - Articles

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TERRY LYNN KING v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Mar 16, 2021

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Joshua Hedrick and Cullen M. Wojcik, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Terry Lynn King.

Attorneys 2: Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Courtney N. Orr, Assistant Attorney General; Charme Allen, District Attorney General; and Leland Price, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): OGLE

The Petitioner, Terry Lynn King, through counsel, appeals from the post-conviction court’s order summarily denying relief on his amended post-conviction petition challenging his 1985 death sentence for the first degree murder perpetrated in the simple kidnapping by confinement of Diana K. Smith. The Petitioner argues that (1) the prior violent felony aggravating circumstance applied in his case is unconstitutionally vague under Johnson v, United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015); (2) the harmless error analysis utilized by the original post-conviction court and this court concerning the erroneous application of the felony murder aggravating circumstance is unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida, 577 U.S. 92(2016); (3) the Petitioner is entitled to post-conviction relief on amended claims alleging that the State committed Brady violations at his original trial, that the use of his Grainger County conviction to establish the prior violent felony aggravating circumstance violated his constitutional rights, and that counsel committed ineffective assistance of counsel; (4) the post-conviction court’s summary denial of the amended post- conviction petition violated the Petitioner’s right to due process; and (5) the cumulative effect of the errors resulted in a deprivation of constitutional rights.

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