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Criminal Law

Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Covers DUI, Narcotics and Drugs, White Collar Offenses and other Criminal Defense law issues with a focus on Tennessee State law.
By Baker Associates

Post Frequency: 5.4/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 00:14:19

Prosecutorial Misconduct

Posted on March 12, 2010
Prosecutors in criminal cases are often placed in difficult positions. On one hand, they have to be diligent in representing the state for which they work while on the other hand, they have to avoid doing or saying anything inappropriate that might be challenged by the defendant on appeal as having been unduly harmful to the defendant?s case...

Electronic Recording of Statements Made to Police Should Be Mandatory

Posted on March 11, 2010
Whether statements and confessions given by suspects to police should be electronically recorded is an issue that is beginning to come to the forefront of criminal law across the nation. Proponents of mandatory recording argue that recording is necessary to ensure fairness for defendants and efficiency in the courts...

Circumstances are Key in Criminal Cases

Posted on March 11, 2010
With regard to criminal offenses, the circumstances surrounding the offense are often critical in determining both how a defendant is charged and how a defendant is sentenced if he or she is convicted. In many cases, the events occur in a particular order or in a particular way that makes the difference in whether or not the defendant is subjected to much more serious punishment than the defendant would be absent the particular circumstances...

What Happens When the Laws Change?

Posted on March 09, 2010
Criminal trials can take months, years, or even decades from start to finish. Not surprisingly, laws can change mid-trial for many defendants for various reasons and can cause a great deal of confusion for defendants when laws change that directly affect the defendant?s case or sentencing...

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What is a ?Life Sentence??

Posted on March 08, 2010
Hearing that someone is sentenced to a ?life sentence? is fairly common, especially with regard to the legal headlines where the most heinous crimes (with the harshest sentences) tend to dominate. However, what exactly constitutes a life sentence is not a subject that comes up with much frequency...

Enhancement Factors

Posted on March 05, 2010
For a criminal defendant, an enhancement factor is something he or she wants to avoid if at all possible. Simply put, an enhancement factor is a factor that can be considered by the trial court in imposing a more severe sentence on the defendant than would otherwise be imposed in the absence of such a factor...

Search Warrants: What is a ?Search??

Posted on March 04, 2010
Yesterday?s article focused specifically on searches of open fields, the significance of those areas being that they are sometimes used for the purpose of conducting illegal activities such as growing marijuana. The question regarding those areas for constitutional purposes is basically whether or not law enforcement officials can search for and seize evidence from those areas without first having to obtain a search warrant...

Search Warrants: "Open Fields" Doctrine

Posted on March 03, 2010
Search warrant issues arise with great frequency in the East Tennessee criminal law context, as law enforcement officials often seize narcotics, weapons, or some other evidence that is extremely damaging to the defendant?s case. As such, the defendant needs to find a way to keep such evidence from getting admitted if possible...

US Supreme Court Rules on Miranda Issue

Posted on March 02, 2010
In a case styled Florida v. Powell that threatens to erode the effectiveness of Miranda warnings a great deal, the United States Supreme Court ruled on February 23, 2010 that a suspect does not have to be expressly advised during an interrogation of his or her right to have counsel present during the questioning in order to satisfy the requirements of Miranda...

Use of Prior Convictions at Trial

Posted on March 01, 2010
For a criminal defendant, one of the most damaging pieces of evidence at trial can be a prior conviction. The admission of a prior conviction via impeachment can do irreparable damage to a defendant, making them appear untrustworthy, dishonest, or otherwise not credible as to their testimony...

Request for an Attorney Must be Unequivocal

Posted on February 26, 2010
In what is a somewhat bizarre case, the Tennessee Supreme Court will decide soon what type of speech qualifies as a request for an attorney. A defendant is constitutionally guaranteed the right to an attorney but in order to exercise that right, the defendant must make a clear and unequivocal request for an attorney so that law enforcement officials know that an attorney is being requested...

Right to Confrontation Case to Come Before State's Highest Court

Posted on February 25, 2010
Cases that deal with constitutional rights are often some of the most difficult to analyze and thus often find their way to the highest courts. As such, it is no surprise that a case dealing with a defendant?s constitutional right to confrontation would make its way to the Supreme Court in a case on its upcoming docket styled State v...

Tennessee Supreme Court to Hear Right to Privacy Issue

Posted on February 24, 2010
The right to privacy is one of the most important rights guaranteed to Americans by the United States Constitution, and implicit in that right are many constitutional guarantees that are protected by the courts. One such right is the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures at the behest of law enforcement...

State Supreme Court to Look at Traffic Stop Issue

Posted on February 23, 2010
The validity of traffic stops is a frequently contested issue in Tennessee criminal law, and with good reason. In many cases, it is the act of initiating a traffic stop that leads to charges of driving under the influence, simple possession, possession with intent to distribute, and many others...

More on the Upcoming Tennessee Supreme Court Docket

Posted on February 22, 2010
When the Tennessee Supreme Court hears a criminal case, it has the ability to redefine, reinterpret or otherwise affect an area of Tennessee criminal law in a substantial way. Thus every case that comes before the Court is worthy of discussion since it may have a lasting impact on the criminal framework...

Tampering with Evidence

Posted on February 19, 2010
The Tennessee Supreme Court has included a case on its upcoming docket in which it will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to convict a defendant of tampering with evidence where there is no eyewitness to the actual act of alleged tampering. The defendant was convicted for tampering after he allegedly flushed cocaine down the toilet when police officers entered his home...

DNA Evidence Issue to be Reviewed

Posted on February 18, 2010
DNA evidence is a critical component of some criminal investigations, and it is an essential component of most criminal investigations that take place on many popular network television shows. The acquisition of DNA evidence is often key in many criminal cases because the composition of the DNA in an individual is a combination of the DNA of that individual?s parents, and, unless that person has an identical twin, his or her DNA is unique...

State's Highest Court to Hear Theft of Services Case

Posted on February 17, 2010
The Tennessee Supreme Court is set to hear a case that could significantly expand the scope of the crime of theft in the state. In a case styled State v. Butler, the defendants are charged with theft of services for allegedly underreporting their income in order to obtain cheaper public housing...

Communicating a Threat Concerning a School Employee

Posted on February 16, 2010
It seems schools these days are more dangerous than ever before, with stories of school-related violence constantly finding a place on the news and in the headlines. Such violence comes in many different forms, whether it be by a student or a student?s parent against a teacher, by a teacher against a student or another teacher, or often even by a student against another student...

Tennessee Supreme Court Has Several Criminal Cases On the Docket

Posted on February 15, 2010
One of the most difficult things about the practice of law is that the law is constantly evolving. Even laws that have been worded exactly the same way for hundreds of years are always being reinterpreted and laws that seem to have plain meaning can be a source of controversy when they are applied to complicated or novel factual scenarios...

Twelve Year-Old May Be Tried As An Adult In Murder Case

Posted on February 12, 2010
A Pennsylvania prosecutor is reportedly struggling with how to charge a boy suspected of murdering his pregnant stepmother when he was eleven. The woman was apparently shot in her own home last February, and investigators began to suspect the boy of being shooter when their investigation revealed no signs of forced entry or burglary...

Wal-Mart Electronics Section Hosts Batting Practice

Posted on February 11, 2010
One of the great things about baseball is that you can play it anywhere. All you need is a bat and something to use it on and you can play baseball in some form. A good example of this is provided by a Georgia man who walked into Lilburn, Georgia Wal-Mart on Wednesday, grabbed a baseball bat and smashed up twenty-nine flat screen televisions...

Defenses to an Evading Arrest Charge

Posted on February 10, 2010
Intoxication often leads individuals to make less than optimal decisions, which is exactly what an Indiana man did early Sunday morning when he decided it might be a good idea to try to steal a backhoe. The man apparently climbed over a fence to get to the backhoe and then crashed the backhoe through the fence to make his escape...

Court of Criminal Appeals Overturns Possession of a Handgun Conviction

Posted on February 09, 2010
The concept of lesser included offenses is one that can at times prove confusing to defendants, attorneys, and, as the case of State v. Wellman shows, the courts. In Wellman, the defendant was arrested after an anonymous phone call informed police that the defendant was selling drugs in the Nashville area...

?Professional Criminal? Label Can Warrant Consecutive Sentences

Posted on February 08, 2010
The word ?consecutive? is a word that can strike fear into the heart of any criminal defendant. That single word can make decades? worth of difference in defendants? sentencing hearings, transforming multiple convictions into one extended prison term...

Belief in "Faith Healing" Results in Criminal Conviction for Oregon Couple

Posted on February 05, 2010
An Oregon couple was convicted of criminally negligent homicide on Tuesday after a jury decided that prayer and anointing oils were not sufficient treatment for the couple?s son, who died from a congenital urinary tract blockage. The couple belongs to a church known as Followers of the Church of Christ and as such adheres to the view that doctors are to be eschewed in favor of faith healing...

Man Calls Police after Son Threatens Him with Spoon

Posted on February 04, 2010
Parents often talk about how hard it is to see a child through their teen years, and a father from Niceville, Florida would probably agree with that assessment after he had to call the police on his fifteen year-old son after a family dispute became (kind of) dangerous...

Considering Mitigating and Enhancement Factors at Sentencing

Posted on February 03, 2010
The criminal process is set up so that defendants have a multitude of options at their disposal for making sure they are able to obtain a fair sentence. One of these options is the right to appeal, and defendants can appeal on a wide range of subjects, one of which is that the defendant received a sentence that was excessive...

BAC Level is not Dispositive in Tennessee

Posted on February 02, 2010
A recent Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals decision interpreted Tennessee?s DUI statute in a way that may prove confusing in the future. In the case, styled State v. Wright, the defendant was convicted of DUI based on the evidence that the officer saw him swerve over the center line of the road three times, the defendant approached a stop sign and turned left without stopping, the officer detected the odor of alcohol when she approached the vehicle, that defendant needed support when he exited the vehicle, and that the defendant failed all five field sobriety tests...

Self-Defense in Tennessee

Posted on February 01, 2010
Self-defense is a theory of defense that is generally available in Tennessee to those who are charged with or accused of crimes involving the use of force against another individual. The basic premise behind the defense is that one person has the right to use a reasonable amount of force against another to prevent the suffering of death or bodily harm...

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