TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Aug 20, 2021

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals last week upheld the guilty verdict and death penalty for Lmarcus Davidson, believed to be the ringleader of the 2007 murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian, WATE reports. The court found that while some mistakes did happen during Davidson’s trial and appeal, they did not find enough reasons to grant a new trial or change the punishment. The court agreed that Davidson’s defense team should have requested a change of venue after extensive media coverage of the case, but that Davidson failed to demonstrate he was prejudiced by the deficient performance. The court also agreed that the jury should have heard testimony from a related case that another individual killed Newsom, but said the mistakes were “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”