Former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Walthour is suing the university, the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA after allegedly suffering numerous concussions during his time with the program. His suit, which includes claims of negligence and breach of contract, seeks damages for medical expenses and more. The lawsuit is one of six filed nationwide by the Houston firm Raizner Slania, Nashville Post reports. 

Rep. John Mark Windle, D-Livingston, today said state prisons “need to tell us who has hepatitis C,” The Tennessean reports. Windle’s comments come in the face of a hepatitis C epidemic previously reported by The Tennessean. The source reports only a fraction of roughly 21,000 inmates in the state have been tested for the disease. 

Mary Drew Gentry (“the Defendant”) appeals the Blount County Circuit Court’s order revoking her probation and imposing her three-year sentence for burglary. On appeal, the Defendant acknowledges that she violated probation but argues that the trial court should have imposed split confinement and community corrections rather than ordering her to serve her sentence. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The Defendant, Micah England, pleaded guilty in the Madison County Circuit Court pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement to carrying a weapon on school property, a Class E felony, with the length and the manner of service of the sentence to be determined by the trial court. See T.C.A. § 39-17-1309 (2014) (amended 2015). The court sentenced the Defendant to two years? probation. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his request for judicial diversion. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The appellant, James Frederick Hegel, appeals the Sullivan County Criminal Court’s denial of his motion to suspend the costs the court ordered he pay for his 2009 convictions of rape of a child and incest. Based upon the record and the parties’ briefs, we dismiss the appeal.

The appellant, William Scott Deadrick, pled guilty in the Sullivan County Criminal Court to multiple counts of selling and delivering less than one-half gram of a Schedule II controlled substance within a school zone. The trial court merged some of the convictions and sentenced the appellant to an effective eight-year sentence to be served at 100%. Subsequently, the appellant filed a motion for reduction of sentence, which the trial court summarily denied. On appeal, the appellant challenges the trial court’s denial of his motion.

The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in favor of a black death-row inmate's claim of racial bias in jury selection. The 7-1 verdict, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, said prosecutors unconstitutionally barred all potential black jurors from the Georgia man’s trial nearly 30 years ago. Defense attorneys later discovered the bias through a series of prosecution notes obtained through an open-records request. USA Today notes that this happened one year after the court’s landmark 1986 ruling in Batson v. Kentucky that declared such actions unconstitutional. 

Members of the University of Tennessee College of Law’s Pro Bono program performed more than 10,000 hours of pro bono legal service over the last year for charitable and nonprofit organizations. This year's hours surpassed last year’s record of 8,764. 

The deadline for mailing Affidavits of Completion and paying all fees to the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education is May 31 in order to avoid the $200 late fee for 2015 compliance. The TBA is offering two live CLE events this week and a broad selection of online courses to help those in need of CLE hours.