US Supreme Court refines test for Second Amendment challenges
Near the end of its 2023-2024 term, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. —, 2024 WL 3074728 (June 21, 2024). In its opinion, the Court attempts to ratchet back some of the consequences/implications of its decision two years ago in New York State Rifle & Pistol […]
Tennessee Supreme Court overrules decades of precedent regarding probable cause by saying nothing changed
Without identifying specific cases, the Tennessee Supreme Court in State v. Green, expressly overruled “any prior opinions of the Court of Criminal Appeals or this Court [which] imply or provide a per se rule of probable cause based on a positive alert” by a drug dog. While the Court took great pains to explain that […]
U.S. Supreme Court finds that substitute expert testimony may violate Confrontation Clause but punts the question of whether original expert’s statements are testimonial
The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Smith v. Arizona blunts the State’s ability to substitute experts at trial with the substitute expert basing their testimony on the original expert’s notes or reports. The Court’s ruling in this case opens the door to challenging Tennessee’s existing stance on this issue as outlined in State […]
New U.S. Supreme Court decision provides a basis to challenge range enhancements in Tennessee
Even though it isn’t obvious on its face, SCOTUS has just given defendants in Tennessee a new challenge in certain sentencing cases. Now, based on Erlinger v. United States’s reading of Apprendi v. New Jersey, defendants faced with a possible range enhancement should consider filing a pre-trial motion challenging the enhancement absent a unanimous jury […]
Tenn. Sup. Ct. and CCA clarify deadlines for post-conviction petitions and writs of error coram nobis
The Court of Criminal Appeals has reinstated two first-degree murder convictions in Lowe v. State after concluding that an attorney’s “miscalculation and poor advice” on post-conviction deadlines do not toll the one-year statute of limitations for post-conviction petitions. As a result, Petitioner’s post-conviction claims were dismissed as untimely, despite the trial court’s grant of post-conviction […]