Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon on Wednesday was a guest on the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines,” where he addressed the community's concerns about juvenile crime. The Daily Memphian reports that the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission data shows the number of delinquency cases filed for juveniles was down 47% during the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of 2023; however, the percentage of youth reoffenders is up 3.7% to 38.9% compared to the first quarter of 2023. Sugarmon also said 75% of the court’s work is on the child-welfare side, dealing with child support, child custody or dependency and neglect matters. Delinquency work makes up the other 25%. 

West Tennessee Legal Services (WTLS) is seeking volunteers for their Wills & Power of Attorney clinic on July 11 and 12. All attorney work is completed remotely via phone using WTLS document automation software, and WTLS will handle the document execution. If you would like to volunteer, you can sign up online via this form.

Join the Tennessee Department of Revenue (DOR) on July 10 at 8:30 a.m. CDT for a free webinar specifically designed for new businesses. Participants will learn about state tax obligations for new businesses, as well as other resources that may help their business. Each new business webinar, offered quarterly, covers topics such as tax registration, sales and use tax, business tax, franchise and excise taxes, and how to get help from the DOR, as well as other relevant state agencies.

Rhea Clift and Justin Gee are both running to fill the remaining six years of the current eight-year term of Germantown Municipal Court judge. Raymond Clift Jr., Rhea’s father, retired from the bench in 2022. Kevin Patterson, appointed to the interim position, is not seeking election. According to the Daily Memphian, Clift and Gee both applied for the interim post before Patterson was ultimately appointed. Clift began her prosecuting career 33 years ago with the Shelby County District Attorney’s office. In 2000 she became a prosecutor in Bartlett and in 2020 she became the suburb’s chief prosecutor. She is also a prosecutor in Millington City Court. Gee has 18 years of experience as a defense attorney and has been with the law firm of Wagerman Katzman for 19 years. He specializes in seizures of property but also works on many criminal cases. Early voting runs from July 12 to 27. Election Day is Aug, 1.

The trial court terminated a mother’s parental rights to two of her minor children on the grounds of abandonment by failure to visit, substantial noncompliance with the permanency plans, persistent conditions, and failure to manifest an ability and willingness to assume custody or financial responsibility of the children. We affirm the trial court’s ruling on all grounds. We also conclude that terminating the mother’s parental rights is in the children’s best interests and affirm the trial court’s ultimate ruling.

The Petitioner, Jay William Edwards, appeals from the denial of his petition seeking post-conviction relief from his convictions of aggravated kidnapping, assault, and interfering with an emergency call, for which he received an effective sentence of ten years’ confinement. On appeal, he argues: (1) trial counsels were ineffective in failing to object to (a) a constructive amendment to the indictment and (b) an incomplete White instruction; and (2) he was deprived of his right to testify at trial. After review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

This is an interlocutory appeal as of right, pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 10B, from the trial court’s orders denying the petitioner’s two pro se motions to recuse the trial court judge in the underlying restoration of citizenship action. The petitioner based his first motion to recuse in the instant case entirely upon actions and rulings made by the trial court judge in a previous civil case. He based his second motion to recuse on the same actions and rulings plus two additional orders, one entered by the trial court judge while the petitioner’s appeal of the first recusal denial was pending. Discerning no reversible error in the trial court judge’s denial of the motions to recuse, we affirm.

A group of mainly Black clergy and business and community leaders in Chattanooga held a press conference on Monday in front of District Attorney Coty Wamp's office, saying the indictment of Police Chief Celeste Murphy was the result of politics, reports Chattanoogan.com. Dr. Ernest Reid, pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church, said Murphy's historic appointment as the city's first Black female police chief "was met with hostility almost from the start," adding that this "attempt to discredit an African American woman in leadership reeks of petty partisan politics with dangerous outcomes if applied uniformly." Wamp attended the press conference and stated she had referred the matter from the start to a prosecutor from another county and that her office had not brought the charges against Murphy, stating, "I cannot and will not comment on Chief Murphy's investigation or indictment, because I do not know anything about it other than what I have read in the news media."

Defense attorneys for the widow of Gershun Freeman, a Shelby County Jail inmate who died in custody in 2022, have subpoenaed Memphis attorney Allan Wade's office in the federal civil lawsuit about Freeman’s death. The Daily Memphian reports that the subpoena seeks written communications, documents and phone calls between Wade’s office and the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and any of the nine officers who have been charged in Freeman’s death, charges which range from aggravated assault to second-degree murder. Freeman died in October 2022 after an altercation with corrections deputies at the jail, during what his widow’s lawsuit describes as a “mental health crisis.”

A new report released by the nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank Prison Policy Initiative found that Tennessee has the ninth-highest incarceration rate in the world based on population if each U.S. state were considered its own country, according to the Tennessee Lookout. Tennessee has more than 55,000 people in local jails or state and federal prisons. Seven other states, mainly in the South, and El Salvador are the only places that have higher rates of people in jails or prisons. The report analyzes prison data from various U.S. counties, states and other countries, using population data to find which ones have the most people incarcerated. Read the full report here.