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A criminal conviction is meant to be final, and Tennessee law places heavy limits on how and when a judgment can be reopened. But finality is not the same as certainty, and the arrival of forensic DNA testing forced the legal system to confront a hard truth: some people were convicted of crimes they didContinueContinue reading “Post-Conviction DNA Testing in Tennessee”

Few things carry more weight with a jury than a witness pointing across the courtroom and saying, “That’s the person who did it.” Eyewitness testimony feels certain, and jurors tend to believe it. Yet decades of research and a long list of overturned convictions have shown that human memory is far less reliable than itContinueContinue reading “Eyewitness Identification and the Biggers Factors in Tennessee”

Before a Tennessee criminal case can move forward to trial, the law requires that the person accused be able to understand what is happening and take part in his own defense. When there is a genuine question about whether a defendant can do that — because of a serious mental illness, an intellectual disability, orContinueContinue reading “Competency to Stand Trial in Tennessee”

The criminal law generally holds people responsible for their choices. But the law also recognizes that some choices are not truly free. A person forced at gunpoint to drive a robber away from a crime scene, or someone who breaks into a stranger’s cabin to escape a deadly blizzard, has technically committed an offense —ContinueContinue reading “Duress and Necessity Defenses in Tennessee”

Undercover stings are a staple of drug enforcement and vice investigations in Middle Tennessee. A confidential informant offers to sell drugs, or asks a person to find some. An undercover officer poses as a buyer, a seller, or someone soliciting an illegal act. When the target takes the bait, an arrest follows. But there isContinueContinue reading “Entrapment as a Defense in Tennessee”

The insanity defense is one of the most misunderstood ideas in criminal law. Television and movies have convinced many people that it is a common escape hatch, invoked routinely and easily won. In Tennessee, the reality is the opposite. The defense is narrow, rarely raised, and hard to prove — the defendant carries the burden,ContinueContinue reading “The Insanity Defense in Tennessee”

In Tennessee, you do not have to pull the trigger, break the window, or hand over the drugs to be convicted of the crime. Under the state’s law of criminal responsibility for the conduct of another, a person who helps, encourages, or directs someone else to commit an offense can be charged with that offenseContinueContinue reading “Criminal Responsibility for the Conduct of Another in Tennessee”

Tennessee law does not wait for a crime to be finished before it can be prosecuted. Two of the most important tools the state uses to reach unfinished conduct are criminal attempt and solicitation. Attempt punishes a person who takes real steps toward a crime that never gets completed; solicitation punishes a person who triesContinueContinue reading “Criminal Attempt and Solicitation in Tennessee”

Conspiracy is one of the most powerful tools a prosecutor has, and one of the most misunderstood charges a person can face. It lets the state charge someone with a crime that was never completed, hold each participant responsible for what the others did, and bring a sprawling group of defendants into a single case.ContinueContinue reading “Criminal Conspiracy in Tennessee”

When someone in Tennessee is convicted of a serious sexual offense, the sentence a judge announces in court is only part of the picture. For a defined set of offenses, Tennessee law attaches a second, quieter sentence that begins after the prison term ends and never expires on its own: community supervision for life. ItContinueContinue reading “Community Supervision for Life in Tennessee”