District 9 Representative: Ginny Blake and Kaley Bonett

As Belmont Law's Public Interest Coordinator, Ginny Blake's primary mission is to champion and facilitate public interest and pro bono initiatives, as well as nurture the law school's vital partnerships with public interest organizations. Specifically, Blake plans, coordinates and executes Belmont Law's pro bono clinics. She also provides guidance to students striving to complete Belmont Law's pro bono pledge. Originally from West Virginia, she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in public relations from Marshall University and completed her law degree at West Virginia University College of Law. Over the course of her legal education, Blake interned with the federal public defender for the Southern District of Ohio in their Capital Habeas Unit, worked as a student attorney for the West Virginia Innocence Project and was a member of Public Interest Advocates. She was vice president of the Maryln E. Lugar Trial Association and was inducted into the Order of the Barristers upon graduation. She is licensed to practice in the state of Tennessee. Prior to joining Belmont Law, Blake served as head speechwriter and deputy communications director for former Nashville Mayor John Cooper. She enjoys reading, taking aerial dance classes, rock climbing and hanging out with CS Lewis, her pet bunny.

Kaley Bonett is an associate attorney at Richardson Law Group PLLC located in Hendersonville. After graduating from Berklee College of Music and the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Bonett moved to Nashville hoping to contribute to its vibrant and historic culture. Previously, she was a law student scholar for the American Bar Association (ABA), scholarship recipient for the North American Law Summit, fellow for the Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council, and a senior editor of the Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review. In addition to her work at the firm, Bonett is passionate about providing pro bono work to budding artists through the Nashville Arts and Business Council. She hopes to devote the rest of her spare time to serving as the District 9 Representative for the TBA YLD.

TBA YLD members were sent an email today with a ballot for the candidates running for TBA YLD District 9 Representative. The email was sent from Intelliscan Inc. If you did not receive the email in your inbox, please check your spam folder. If you still did not receive it, contact elections@tnbar.org to request that it be resent. Electronic voting begins today and will close on March 9.

TBA's Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Legislative Reception will be held in Nashville on March 19. The events give Tennessee lawyers an opportunity to meet with legislators and talk to them about issues important to the profession, including funding for indigent representation. The TBA Day on the Hill will include an opportunity to meet with legislators in the afternoon, followed by the annual Big Shrimp reception that night. RSVP for these events here. Learn more about the need for increased indigent representation funding or read about how the system works in Tennessee in posts from the TBA's recent Indigent Representation Primer.

Carter County lawyer Jason Lee Holly has been reinstated to the active practice of law. He had been temporarily suspended for failure to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility on Oct. 28, 2024. The court reports that on Jan. 3, Holly provided an appropriate response to the board and filed a petition to dissolve the temporary suspension. At a hearing on Feb. 7, a panel of the board determined that dissolution of the temporary suspension was appropriate.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office has asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for five people on death row, five years after the state last put a person to death, the Tennessean reports. The motions, filed on Friday, ask the court to set dates for Kevin Burns, Jon Douglas Hall, Kennath Artez Henderson, Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines and William Glenn Rogers. The motions are the next step in the process to resume executions in Tennessee after they were paused in 2022. Executions will proceed in the state under a new lethal injection protocol using a single drug, pentobarbital.

Defendant, Robert King Vaughn, Jr., appeals his convictions for attempted first degree murder and aggravated rape, for which he received a total effective sentence of 120 years’ confinement. Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his conviction for attempted first degree murder; (2) no reasonable trier of fact could find that he failed to establish the insanity defense by clear and convincing evidence; and (3) the prosecutor engaged in improper argument by misstating Tennessee law and vouching for witnesses during the State’s closing argument. Following a thorough review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

In 2023, the Defendant, Raymond Scott Knox, pleaded guilty to eleven counts of methamphetamine and weapons related charges, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of sixty-five years of incarceration. On appeal, the Defendant asserts that the trial court erred when it sentenced him. After review, we affirm the trial court's judgments.

The Petitioner, Timothy A. Baxter, appeals from the habeas corpus court’s summary denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the habeas corpus court erred by failing to conduct a hearing on the merits of the allegations raised in his petition, and in a related argument, by failing to order the trial court to award additional pretrial jail credits on the underlying conviction. We affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court.

In this case involving termination of the parents' parental rights to their three minor children, the trial court found that two statutory grounds for termination had been proven by clear and convincing evidence: (1) abandonment by failure to financially support the children and (2) failure ot manifest an ability and willingness to assume legal and physical custody of or financial responsibility for the children. The trial court further found that termination of both parents' parental rights was ni the children's best interest. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm.

February 10, 2025 - February 14, 2025.