Thirteenth District Criminal Court Judge Gary McKenzie, a former Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer, presides over the district’s Veterans Treatment Court. After being elected to the bench in 2014, McKenzie established the VTC program with the help of Judge Seth Norman. The program provides treatment, counseling and therapy for substance abuse as an alternative to incarceration. McKenzie credits the program’s success to a structure similar to that of the military. He also believes being a veteran himself is beneficial for the program. “I can communicate with them in a similar language, if you will,” McKenzie said. To date, the program has experienced success with only a 3% recidivism rate versus the average of 33% for other programs. Read the story from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Memphis attorney Varonica Cooper was this week elected Division 2 Judge of the Memphis Municipal Court for an eight-year term, the Daily Memphian reports. Cooper faced off against eight candidates to replace Judge Tarik Sugarmon, who resigned after being elected to the Shelby County Juvenile Court. Cooper is an attorney at the Cooper Law Firm. She has been in private practice for 25 years. Prior to moving to Memphis, she worked as an entertainment attorney. She is a former professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Following scrutiny over the slow turnaround of sexual assault kit testing, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has asked for a $45.3 million budget increase, the Daily Memphian reports. TBI Director David Rausch asked Gov. Bill Lee for the increase yesterday during the fist day of the state government’s fiscal year 2024 budget process. Much of the increase would be spent on enabling faster processing times for the kits as well as funding 71 positions. Rausch asked for $5.8 million to fund 25 forensic scientists and 14 support personnel and another $27.6 million for “salary modernization.” Lee pushed Rausch for more details on how much faster turnaround times would be, but Rausch was unable to answer.

Tennessee state government offices and state courts will be closed tomorrow in observance of Veterans Day. See a full list of holiday office closure on that state’s website.   

The TBA’s Federal Law Section will hold a one-hour webcast on Dec. 15 from 1-2 p.m. CST. The session will cover Ruan v. United States charging considerations, expert witness testimony in opiate prosecutions and sentencing guideline considerations/compassionate release. The program will be worth one general credit hour of CLE. Learn more and register here.

Witness an all-star lineup of women attorneys discuss resiliency in our profession during times of change, nontraditional legal careers, women supporting other women and much more during the “Raising the Bar” program tomorrow. Produced by the TBA Women in the Profession Committee, the in-person event will kick off with a keynote address from retired Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle now with JAMS: Mediation, Arbitration and ADR Service on withstanding career adversity, overcoming challenges and growing from those experiences. Programming will run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. CST at Baker Donelson’s Nashville office and will be immediately followed by a networking reception. Learn more and register for the program.

A new analysis from non-partisan think tank ThinkTennessee has found that the state’s policy of suspending driver’s licenses for failure to pay court debt has little impact on how much money the courts are able to recoup. According to the report, the practice creates additional challenges for people who are often living in poverty. “By making it harder to get to work and earn the money needed to pay off court costs, driver’s license revocations risk being a counterproductive policy, potentially trapping low-income Tennesseans in a cycle of court debt and poverty,” the report’s authors wrote. They added that the state should consider ending the practice. The practice was stopped and ruled unconstitutional in 2018, but the pause was temporary and was restarted in July 2021. The Commercial Appeal has more on the story.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday authored her first Supreme Court opinion – a dissent from the court’s refusal to hear a death penalty case, the ABA Journal reports. Jackson said the Supreme Court should have heard the appeal by Davel Chinn, who argued that a federal appeals court used the wrong standard when evaluating the impact of the prosecution’s failure to disclose that a star witness had an intellectual disability. Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined Jackson’s dissent. Read the dissent here.  

The TBA Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity will host a free event on Monday featuring a panel discussion on diversifying the judicial branch. “Increasing and Retaining Judicial Diversity: the Why, the When and the How” is the first part in a series that will focus on providing minority lawyers the tools needed when seeking judgeships. The panel will be moderated by TBA Chief Diversity Officer Mary Beard and will feature 20th Judicial District Chancery Court Judge I'ashea Myles and Kingsport attorney Jimmie Miller who previously served on Gov. Bill Lee’s Council for Judicial Appointments. The virtual event will take place on Nov. 14 from noon until 1:30 p.m. CST. Read more and register here.

Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judges Camille R. McMullen, Robert H. Montgomery Jr. and Tom Greenholtz on Tuesday heard arguments in the death sentence commutation case of Byron Black, the Tennessean reports. Black filed a motion last year to be deemed intellectually disabled which, per a new state law, could make him ineligible for the death penalty. A Nashville judge tossed the case earlier this year, saying that two prior decisions on Black’s intellectual disability ruled out a review under the new law. Black’s legal team argued that since their client’s claim wasn’t heard under the new standard, the pathway should apply to him. Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk had agreed with Black’s team on the trial level, but the Tennessee attorney general’s office is fighting their appeal. The state argues the new law was intended to be extremely limited and not to include anyone who has previously had an intellectual disability case decided on the merits. The appeals judges are expected to issue a written order.