The Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday suspended 29 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee and two lawyers for failure to pay the annual registration fee and submit certification that all eligible funds are held in an IOLTA account. See the full list of those suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2020. See all administrative suspensions lists dating back to 2005.

Federal inmate Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death this morning after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an injunction by a D.C. judge, the ABA Journal reports. Purkey was originally scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, but U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, for the second time this week, issued a preliminary injunction to delay an execution, citing Purkey’s mental state. In a 5-4 vote this morning, SCOTUS allowed the execution to proceed and Purkey was put to death shortly thereafter. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan dissented, with Sotomayor writing that Purkey has Alzheimer’s disease and does not believe he’s being executed for murder. Breyer, also for the second time this week, called for reexamining the constitutionality of the death penalty. Purkey was sentenced to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 16-year-old in 1998. Daniel Lewis Lee was the first federal inmate to be executed this week since 2003. 

For the second time this week, a judge in Washington, D.C., has blocked the federal government from resuming executions. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan granted a preliminary injunction early this morning to Wesley Ira Purkey, who was scheduled to be executed later today, The Hill reports. Chutkan said that the new injunction was warranted because of Purkey's mental state. His lawyers have argued that his dementia and schizophrenia prevent him from understanding why he is being executed. Also today, Chutkan ordered an injunction in a legal challenge against the administration’s new execution protocol, which involves the single drug pentobarbital sodium. That challenge was brought by a group of death row inmates. The Department of Justice has appealed both orders to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Members of the Rutherford & Cannon County Bar Association recently indicated they would prefer Murfreesboro attorney John "Jack" G. Mitchell III as the new circuit court judge, the Daily News Journal reports. Bar members were asked to consider each candidate's overall experience, with Mitchell garnering 84% of the vote and Circuit Court Judge Jo Atwood collecting 16%. Gov. Bill Lee appointed Atwood to replace retired Circuit Judge Royce Taylor in May. She previously worked in private practice. Mitchell is a partner with Mitchell & Mitchell in downtown Murfreesboro.

The South Knoxville branch of the Knox County Clerk’s Office is closed for the week after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, Knoxnews reports. The closure, confirmed by Clerk Sherry Witt, began Monday after an employee’s test came back positive after close of business Friday. The other two members of the office were asked to get tested and are quarantining, waiting on their test results to come in, Witt said. Following the Knox County Health Board's decision, Witt said she has asked her employees to wear masks while working unless an underlying health condition prevents them from doing so.

The American Bar Association will hold its 2020 Annual Meeting virtually from July 29 to Aug. 4. Among the issues to be explored by attendees and governance bodies are legal problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic, police reform, foreign cyberthreats and voter suppression. Other highlights include remarks by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on July 29 and presentation of the association’s highest honor, the ABA Medal, to World Justice Project founder William H. Neukom. The ABA House of Delegates will meet on Aug. 3 and 4.

The Tennessee Supreme Court disbarred Loudon County lawyer Arthur Wayne Henry from the practice of law today. Henry consented to disbarment acknowledging that he could not successfully defend the charges alleged in a complaint filed against him. The court found his conduct violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 8.1(b) and 8.4(a), (c), (d) and (g).

Williamson County lawyer David Dwayne Harris was reinstated to the practice of law today. He had been suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court on May 1 for two years with 60 days to be spent on active suspension. Harris filed a reinstatement petition on May 25. The Board of Professional Responsibility found the petition to be satisfactory.

In life, Mary Todd was a fixture at Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law: she was already there when the law school opened in 2008 and continued to reside in a fenced area with a purple house until 2018. Mary was always free to come and go as she pleased but free food kept her close to home, the school reports. According to a Twitter post, the Indian Blue peahen “crossed the rainbow bridge” at a peaceful farm she relocated to two years ago. WBIR has more on the story.

The Maury County Court System will postpone its first jury orientation since the novel coronavirus took hold of the state in mid-March after two employees of the court tested positive for COVID-19. Circuit Court Judge J. Russ Parkes, who drafted a plan last May to return to in-person court proceedings, confirmed that a staff member at the local district attorney’s office and a court clerk have both been diagnosed with the virus, the Columbia Daily Herald reports. Other employees who have been tested have not yet received test results. Initial jury appearances were to have started this morning at Columbia Central High School.