STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JEFFREY LEE POTTS - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JEFFREY LEE POTTS

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Jun 29, 2022

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Martesha L. Johnson, District Public Defender; and Jeffrey A. DeVasher (on appeal), Jonathan F. Wing (at trial), and Crandall Story (at trial), Assistant District Public Defenders, for the appellant, Jeffrey Lee Potts.

Attorneys 2: Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Richard Davison Douglas, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Glenn R. Funk, District Attorney General; and D. Paul DeWitt and Doug Thurman, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): THOMAS

The Defendant, Jeffrey Lee Potts, appeals his jury conviction for attempted second-degree murder, for which he received a Range I sentence of twelve years’ incarceration. In this direct appeal, the Defendant alleges that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the trial court erred by prohibiting the defense expert from testifying about the reasoning and science upon which he based his opinion of the Defendant’s mental condition at the time of shooting; (3) the trial court erred by denying the Defendant’s motion for a mistrial after the trial court stated in the jury’s presence that defense counsel could “rehabilitate” and “clean up” the expert’s testimony; and (4) the trial court erred in sentencing the Defendant, both in imposing the maximum sentence, as well as in imposing a sentence of continuous confinement. Following our review of the record and the applicable authorities, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

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