Memphis Area Legal Services will host the June Second Saturday Legal Advice Clinic on July 8 at the Benjamin Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave., Memphis 38111 from 10 a.m.-noon CDT. The clinic operates on a first come, first served basis.

Zoe Jamail, a policy coordinator for Disability Rights Tennessee, said during a hearing Thursday that new rules proposed by the Department of Children's Services (DCS) to increase accountability could open the door to more privatized youth prisons in Tennessee, reports the Tennessean. In May, DCS proposed a new subcategory: hardware secure residential childcare agencies (HSRCCAs). The term refers to prison-like security conditions, the most restrictive setting the department can place a youth. Jamail said implementation of the rules could create the "potential for the unnecessary institutionalization of youth with disabilities in facilities that are effectively exempt from requirements that are vital to the safety of children."

The Defendant, Myles Wiseman, was convicted by a Shelby County Criminal Court jury of rape, a Class B felony; two counts of incest, a Class C felony; and two counts of statutory rape by an authority figure, a Class C felony. He was sentenced by the trial court to thirty years at 100% as a Range IV, career offender for the Class B felony rape conviction and fifteen years at 45% as a Range III, persistent offender for each of the Class C felony incest and statutory rape convictions. The trial court ordered that the sentences be served consecutively, for a total effective sentence of ninety years in the Department of Correction. The Defendant raises the following issues on appeal: (1) whether the trial court erred by allowing the State to introduce the Defendant’s recorded phone calls from the jail; (2) whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions; and (3) whether the trial court imposed an excessive sentence. Based on our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The defendant, James Pitts, pled guilty to one count of aggravated assault in exchange for a sentence of six years with the manner of service to be determined by the trial court. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court ordered the defendant’s six-year sentence be served in confinement. On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial court erred in imposing a sentence of incarceration rather than an alternative sentence. After reviewing the record, the parties’ briefs and oral arguments, and the applicable law, we conclude the trial court failed to acknowledge most of the relevant statutory considerations or articulate the reasons for the sentence of confinement in accordance with the purposes and principles of sentencing. Therefore, we remand the case for the limited purpose of having the trial court make the appropriate findings on whether the defendant should receive an alternative sentence or a sentence of incarceration, noting that the trial court shall fully articulate its reasoning in accordance with the applicable statutes and case law. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the case is remanded to the trial court.

This is an appeal from a final order entered on March 6, 2023. The Notice of Appeal was not filed with the Appellate Court Clerk until April 6, 2023, more than thirty days from the date of entry of the order from which the appellant is seeking to appeal. Because the Notice of Appeal was not timely filed, we have no jurisdiction to consider this appeal.

A group of 25 state attorneys general, including Tennessee's Jonathan Skrmetti urged the Biden administration on Thursday to abandon a proposal to sharply cut vehicle tailpipe emissions, reports Reuters. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new standards for 2027-2032 vehicles that would cut emissions by 56%. The attorneys general, led by Daniel Cameron of Kentucky and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia, said the EPA proposal "would damage our economy, tax our electrical grids and the families and businesses who depend on them, and threaten our national security." Read the AG's press release.

The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Service (TALS) has announced a new grant partnership with the Tennessee Department of Human Services to provide more access to free, civil legal services for families and children throughout Tennessee, reports Channel 9 in Chattanooga. The new statewide network, Family Centered Legal Solutions (FCLS), will reach out to all 95 counties in Tennessee to help identify and address the core legal issues that often lead to poverty and family instability. Families with children can access the FCLS’s free legal services either by calling the helpline at 1-844-HELP4TN or by contacting the legal aid firm in their area.

The City of Memphis, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis and other defendants in a $550 million civil case filed in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols joined attorneys for Nichols' mother Wednesday in opposing recent motions filed by former Memphis police officers to pause the civil proceedings, reports the Commercial Appeal. In June, TBA Today reported that attorneys for four former officers are requesting that the civil lawsuit filed by Nichols’ family be halted until the criminal case is finished. In their motions, attorneys claimed that the civil case could be prejudicial to the criminal case.

The Johnson County judge who resigned last month following accusations of inappropriate behavior says he will not seek reinstatement to the position, The Tomahawk reports. Former judge Perry Stout had initially tossed his name in the hat after resigning, saying he was only doing so to give the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct (TBJC) “(its) pound of flesh.” Stout is accused of having sex with a county employee in the courthouse and socializing with people who had cases before him while failing to disclose those relationships. The TBJC in a letter to the Johnson County Commission excoriated the decision to seek reinstatement, saying the move “reveals a stunning lack of understanding of the harm he has caused to himself as a jurist, to court employees, to the judiciary, and to public trust and confidence in the administration of justice.” The board in the letter also revealed it is preparing to initiate formal charges against him. An executive assistant to the Johnson County Mayor said that after being provided a copy of the letter from the TBJC, Stout decided to withdraw his name from consideration. The Tomahawk reached out for a comment but did not receive a response.

More courts are warming up to the use of medication treatment to combat opioid addiction and recidivism after seeing successful implementation, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. A study conducted a decade ago by the National Institutes of Health showed that only a half of drug courts offered such options, instead favoring an abstinence-only approach. The number was lower in rural jurisdictions, which were struck hard by the opioid epidemic. Tennessee Judge O. Duane Slone of the 4th Judicial District Circuit Court is a pioneer of using medication treatment as an option in lieu of a more punitive policy. Slone, a former drug trafficking prosecutor, said while he once believed abstinence was the only path to recovery, he began offering medication treatment as an alternative to incarceration for pregnant women after consulting with substance use experts. Upon seeing a decrease in property crimes and jail population in his community, Slone launched the Tennessee Recovery Oriented Compliance Strategy, for which he later received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. According to the Center for Justice Innovation — a nonprofit that seeks to identify and resolve challenges that bring people into the criminal and civil legal systems — more than 90% of drug courts in areas with high opioid mortality rates said they now offer medication treatment, and that 65% of drug court program staffers have received training on the matter.