Retired Judge Russell Lee Moore Jr. died on Jan. 28. He was 76. Judge Moore served as a circuit court judge in the 29th Judicial District, which includes Dyer and Lake counties, from 1997 until his retirement in December 2021. Moore was a graduate of the Mississippi School of Law and began practicing in 1971. Moore was a past president of the Dyer County Bar Association, a TBA member and a member of the Mississippi State Bar. A private family service will be held, per Judge Moore’s request. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the Shriners Hospital for Children, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the New Life Union Mission. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Three attorneys with significant Metro Government experience have joined Nashville’s Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis, the Nashville Post reports. Doug Sloan, Jon Cooper and Quan Poole left Spencer Fane Bone McAllester to join with Waller’s real estate team where they will focus on land use and zoning, corporate relocation and expansion and public-private partnerships. Cooper is a former head of the Metro Council office and Metro legal director. Sloan was previously a Metro attorney, executive director of the Metro Planning Department and chief legal officer at the Nashville International Airport. Poole was from 2017-2020 a Metro attorney working with the city's board of zoning appeals, health department and codes department.

Gov. Bill Lee delivered his fourth annual State of the State address last night, promising to boost funding for education, infrastructure projects and law enforcement, the Associated Press reports. Lee outlined a $52.5 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2022-2023, up nearly 20% from last year’s proposal. The budget gives an additional $125 million to boosting teacher salaries, $356 million for a new multi-agency law enforcement training academy, $150 million to create a violent crime intervention grant and funding to hire 100 more state troopers. An additional $623 million has been allocated for road projects and $200 million has been set aside to help Tennessee’s Colleges of Applied Technology, designed to double the state’s skilled workforce by 2026. Read Lee’s entire address at the Tennessee Journal.

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly today appointed City Councilman Anthony Byrd as city court clerk, the Chattanoogan reports. Byrd served more than 20 years at the Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office, resigning in 2017 to join the city council where he represented residents in District 8. Byrd chaired the council’s Public Safety Committee as well as the Economic and Community Development Committee.  

Travis Reinking, who fatally shot four people at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, WPLN reports. Reinking’s attorney, Luke Evans, told jurors this week that his client was “driven by delusions” about the singer Taylor Swift and aliens, adding that Reinking thought he was being commanded by God the night of the crime. “What the proof is going to show in this case is that Travis Reinking is severely mentally ill,” Evans said. But Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman argued that Reinking’s actions were calculated, pointing to his purchase of extra magazines days before the shooting and how he chose a parking spot at the Waffle House that allowed him to see everyone inside before the shooting began. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan has ruled that former death row inmate Pervis Payne will serve his two life sentences concurrently, making him eligible for parole in five years, the Commercial Appeal reports. Payne was removed from death row after the Shelby County District Attorney’s office dropped its pursuit of the death penalty following a state expert’s assessment that Payne has an intellectual disability. District Attorney General Amy Weirich is seeking to appeal Skahan’s ruling. Weirich said the new statute that “removed the one-year statute of limitations on claims of intellectual disability” doesn’t “authorize changing the original trial judge’s ruling that multiple sentences in the case should be consecutive.” Payne’s attorney, federal public defender Kelley Henry, said she and her legal team will continue to investigate the case in hopes of exonerating Payne.

The Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday named Michele Wojciechowski as the new executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education. Wojciechowski is a graduate of the Nashville School of Law (NSL). She held a variety of management positions during a 13-year career at the Tennessean newspaper and from 2012 to 2016 was director of communications for the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). Most recently, Wojciechowski served as communications director at NSL, where she implemented a major curriculum overhaul, revived NSL’s Continuing Legal Education program and more than doubled job listings for students and alumni by revamping the career development process. Wojciechowski will replace former Executive Director Judy Bond-McKissack, who recently announced her retirement. Read more from the AOC.

Whether you need to satisfy your 2021 CLE requirements or you’re looking to get a jump start on this year’s compliance, the TBA CLE Mid-Winter Event is offering fast and reliable CLE from the comfort of your home or office. Package 1 offers eight dual credit hours of CLE and includes sessions like the 2021 Ethics Homeshow, Virtual Presentation Skills for Attorneys, How to Avoid Cybersecurity Pitfalls and more. Package 2 is worth six dual hours and one general credit hour of CLE and includes the 2021 Legislative Update, Understanding and Confronting Unconscious Bias, Better Right Now 2021 and more. Combine both packages for a total 15 CLE credits.

When the Tennessee legislature voted to combine Knoxville’s two Democratic-leaning state House districts, they effectively carved Rep. Gloria Johnson’s home out of the district she currently represents. Johnson now says she is moving to the newly created District 90 to run again, Knoxnews reports. Much of her current District 13 will be part of the new district. Johnson says she did not want to challenge Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie, the region’s lone Black representative in the General Assembly, in a redrawn District 15 so moving was the best option.

As Nashville continues to license party vehicles, state lawmakers are considering giving local governments more authority to regulate these “transpotainment” companies, the Johnson City Press reports. Rep. Bill Freeman, D-Nashville, is sponsoring HB1392, which would give local governments the power to regulate companies operating party buses and tractors. “Right now in downtown Nashville we have a pretty major issue with these party buses,” Freeman told the House Transportation Committee last week. “We have businesses that are moving out of downtown because of the noise. We’ve got families that are deciding not to take their kids downtown because of the lewd behavior that’s going on in a lot of these buses.” While some conservative lawmakers pushed back on the idea of further regulating business, most agreed the situation needs to be addressed.