Applications are now being accepted for the 2022 Reporters Workshop. Sponsored jointly by the Tennessee Bar Association’s Communication Law Section, the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters and the Tennessee Press Association Foundation, the program will be held in person April 22-23 in Nashville. Print, online, television and/or radio journalists who want to develop a deeper understanding of media law issues that may affect their everyday work, including access to government information, defamation and privacy concerns in reporting should apply before 5 p.m. CST on March 1. The 15 journalists selected to participate will receive a stipend to defray the cost of travel.

A Nashville man who was exonerated in a 2000 murder of a North Nashville woman is suing the city for $18 million, the Tennessean reports. Paul Shane Garrett was exonerated in August after a push from the Tennessee Innocence Project and a report from the Davidson County District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit. Garrett filed the suit Friday, naming the city and five individual police officers for their involvement in the investigation that sent him to prison for 10 years. The lawsuit claims officers tried to coerce Garrett into confession to the crime that he told officers nearly 50 times he did not commit. Two detectives involved in the case were later found to have “lied under oath and/or fabricated evidence on multiple occasions,” including around the time of the investigation into Garrett.   

Judge Sandra Donaghy has announced she will run for reelection in the 10th Judicial District Criminal Court, covering Bradley, McMinn, Monroe and Polk counties. Donaghy was a judge, prosecutor, public defender and in private practice before being elected to the criminal court in 2014. According to a release from her campaign, since 2014 and through the start of COVID-19 restrictions, Donaghy has decreased her backlog by 9% and, in conjunction with Judge Andrew Freiberg, has resolved more than 15,000 cases. Donaghy also recruited multi-disciplinary teams to start a Veterans Treatment Court and obtained state funding for a criminal justice liaison for a Recovery Oriented Compliance Strategy (ROCS) recovery court. Read the full release from Donaghy’s campaign.

After two lawsuits were filed, Tennessee has decided to release a $1.5 million taxpayer-funded report detailing recommendations on improving “government effeciencies,” the Tennessean reports. Private contractor Thomas Wesley filed suit against the Tennessee Department of Human Resources in December, followed by a second suit this month from Nashville Post parent company FW Publishing and reporter Stephen Elliott. The state’s decision to release the report, created by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., was made days before a show cause hearing was set in Wesley’s case. The hearing was canceled after the attorney general’s office said it planned to “grant public access” to the record. A show cause hearing in the Nashville Post’s suit, which was broader in scope, was still scheduled for this afternoon.

Applications are now being accepted for two vacancies on the Eastern Section of the Court of Criminal Appeals following announcements that Judge Norma McGee and Judge D. Kelly Thomas Jr. will not seek retention. Qualified applicants are licensed attorneys who are at least 30 years old, residents of the state for at least five years and current residents of the Eastern Section. Those interested should submit an application to the Administrative Office of the Courts by noon CST on Feb. 8. The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments will hold a virtual hearing for both vacancies via Zoom on March 3 and March 4. The hearing will be livestreamed on the AOC’s YouTube page. The AOC has more on application instructions and how to attend the hearing in person.  

The full state Senate will vote on whether to expel Sen. Katrina Robinson, D-Memphis, from office on Feb. 2, the Commercial Appeal reports. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, announced the decision days after a Senate Ethics Committee recommended the expulsion, determining that Robinson violated the body’s code of ethics. Robinson is awaiting sentencing after being convicted on two counts of federal fraud charges relating to the mismanagement of federal funds connected to her nursing school.

Longtime Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper today announced he will not run for re-election as a Republican redistricting plan that will split Davidson County into three congressional districts moves forward, the Tennessean reports. Cooper’s announcement came less than 24 hours after the state House approved redistricting plans on a 70-26 party-line vote. Cooper, who has represented Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District for 32 years, in a statement said he “explored every possible way” to keep the General Assembly from “dismembering Nashville.” He said he chose to make the announcement now to allow others more time to campaign. The 5th District will now include parts of Davidson, Williamson and Wilson counties, along with rural Lewis, Maury and Marshall counties. “For everything there is a season, a time and place under the sun,” Cooper said. “My time in Congress is ending, but I can’t wait to start the next adventure.”

A private citizen has notified state wildlife officials of his intent to sue within 60 days should a plan to raze 2,000 acres of hardwoods on state-owned land in White County proceed, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The land sits on 16,000 acres that was gifted to the state by Bridgestone Americas. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) plans to raze the land and use it to create grassland habitat for the Northern bobwhite quail. In the Jan. 10 notice, Marvin Bullock, president of the Sparta/White County Chamber of Commerce, and his attorney, Austin Warehime of Nashville’s Ortale Kelley Law Firm, claim the plan may harm numerous protected species in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The plan has upset locals, environmental groups and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, who are critical of TWRA’s lack of transparency and its plan to keep all profits from the sale of the timber. TWRA is the only state agency allowed to keep proceeds from the sale of the state’s natural resources.

Memphis attorney Janika White has announced she’ll run in the Democratic primary for Shelby County district attorney general, the Daily Memphian reports. At her campaign kickoff last month, White called for criminal justice reform and critiqued the “tough on crime” approach, saying it leads to “over-incarceration of a group of people with no actual results.” She says the DA’s office should prosecute when crimes are committed, but should also be involved in efforts to prevent crime. White is a partner at the Walter Bailey Law Firm in Memphis. She previously clerked for Chancellor Kenny Armstrong and U.S. District Judge Bernice, who is now on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. She earned her law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law and is a 2018 graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today suspended Hamblen County lawyer Alan C. Lee from the practice of law for three years. Lee knowingly failed to timely comply with an injunction issued by the U.S. District Court and misrepresented to the court that he was unaware of the court’s order. Lee entered a conditional guilty plea acknowledging his rule violations and must now comply with the Supreme Court’s requirements regarding the obligations and responsibilities of suspended attorneys and the procedure for reinstatement.