The petitioner, Coty Shane Smith, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief, which petition challenged his guilty-pleaded conviction of second degree murder, alleging that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel. Discerning no error, we affirm the denial of post-conviction relief.

The Defendant, Ricky Dale Breeden, was convicted by a Union County Criminal Court jury of three counts of rape of a child, a Class A felony, and two counts of aggravated sexual battery, a Class B felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-522 (2018) (subsequently amended) (rape of a child), 39-13-504 (2018) (aggravated sexual battery). He was sentenced to an effective ninety-five years for the convictions. On appeal, he contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his rape of a child convictions, (2) the State failed to make a proper election of offenses, (3) the trial court erred in denying his motion for expert funds, (4) the court erred by ordering consecutive service. Although we affirm the Defendant’s rape of a child convictions, we reverse the Defendant’s convictions for aggravated sexual battery and remand the case for a new trial.

Week of September 14, 2020 - September 18, 2020

JOHN K. BUSH, Circuit Judge. This case involves a tragic turn of events during Austin Griffith’s pretrial detention at Franklin County Regional Jail (“FCRJ”). Griffith was arrested on November 8, 2015 after a failed robbery attempt, and he suffered a series of seizures six days into his detention. He was sent to a local hospital, where he suffered a third seizure, and was then airlifted to University of Kentucky Hospital. He later recovered but continues to suffer headaches and other negative symptoms in the wake of this medical event.

Griffith brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that he received unconstitutionally inadequate medical care during his detention. His claims were against Franklin County, the county judge executive, the jailer and members of the Franklin County Fiscal Court (collectively, the “Franklin County Defendants”), as well as against Southern Health Partners, Inc. (“SHP”), a private medical company that provides medical services at the jail, and certain medical staff of SHP (collectively, the “SHP Defendants”). In addition to his constitutional claims, the complaint alleged state-law claims.

The district court granted summary judgment to Defendants on the constitutional claims, finding that Griffith failed to establish that Defendants acted with deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. The district court then declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims. Griffith appeals the grant of summary judgment. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment.

Defendant, Urshawn Eric Miller, was convicted by a Madison County jury of premeditated first degree murder, felony first degree murder, attempted especially aggravated robbery, attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, evading arrest, and resisting arrest. The trial court merged the felony murder conviction into the premeditated murder conviction and the aggravated assault conviction into the attempted second degree murder conviction. The jury sentenced Defendant to death for the first degree murder conviction. For the remaining convictions, the trial court imposed an effective sentence of thirty years, to be served concurrently with his death sentence. On appeal, Defendant raises the following issues, as renumbered and reorganized by this Court: (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions; (2) the trial court erred in ruling on various challenges during jury selection; (3) the trial court erred in admitting a video of his prior aggravated robbery during the penalty phase; (4) the death penalty is unconstitutional; (5) the aggravating factors did not outweigh the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt; and (6) the death penalty is disproportionate in this case. Having carefully reviewed the record before us, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. However, we remand the case to the trial court for the correction of a clerical error.

A Rutherford County jury convicted the Defendant, Sebastian A. Stevens, of three counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated kidnapping. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to a total effective sentence of eight years to be served consecutively to a prior sentence. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions. He also contends that the trial court erred when it excluded the victim’s prior conviction and when it allowed the State to introduce evidence of the Defendant’s prior incarceration. The Defendant lastly contends that the trial court erred when it ordered that his effective sentence of eight years in this case be served consecutively to his sentence for a previous conviction. After review, we affirm the trial court’s judgments.

The Petitioner, Kadarick Lucas, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery, and he received an eight-year effective sentence. The Petitioner then filed a petition for postconviction relief, contending that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that he did not plead guilty freely and voluntarily. Following a hearing, the post-conviction court denied the petition, and the Petitioner appeals. After a review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Defendant, Charlie Evans, was convicted after a jury trial of especially aggravated kidnapping, a Class A felony. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-305. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he caused serious bodily injury to the victim. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

In 2010, the Petitioner, Darrell Carpenter, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to serve twenty years in prison. The Petitioner was granted post-conviction relief in the form of a delayed appeal. After his conviction was affirmed, the Petitioner again sought post-conviction relief, asserting that he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel and that the State withheld or destroyed exculpatory evidence. The postconviction court held a hearing and denied the post-conviction claims, and the Petitioner appeals, listing in his reply brief twenty-five grounds for relief. The thrust of the Petitioner’s claims is that a 911 chronology report allegedly contradicts the proof at trial, that trial counsel was deficient in not challenging the proof on this basis, and that the State failed in its duty to preserve or produce related evidence. After a thorough review of the record, we conclude that the Petitioner has not demonstrated that he received ineffective assistance of counsel or that his rights were otherwise violated, and we affirm the denial of post-conviction relief.

NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. Deadlines matter, especially in habeas cases. So we require good excuses to overcome them. One valid excuse is when the government itself creates an unconstitutional impediment to a prisoner’s timely filing of a motion to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. That is what RonRico Simmons argues happened to him here. But he fails to allege facts that would establish that the supposed impediment to his late filing actually prevented him from filing earlier. Without a valid excuse, he filed his § 2255 motion too late. We AFFIRM.