May 2016

The Tennessean’s follow up story to the Nashville Scene reporter being arrested for trespass had an interesting side story. The Tennessean complained in the story about not getting a copy of the complaint after multiple requests by the paper. It is standard procedure that no information is released in Nashville Davidson County until the warrant…

Nashville’s Mayor Megan Barry proposed her budget recently. Contained in the budget is three million dollars for improvements to the A.A. Birch Building which houses the Davidson County General Sessions Courts as well as the Criminal Courts of Davidson County, Tennessee. It was reported in The Tennessean that the three million dollars was earmarked to provide…

The Marshall Project provides excellent commentary regarding the criminal justice system. A recent post was titled 13 Important Questions About  Criminal Justice We Can’t Answer. Today’s post focuses on one question. How many criminal cases are referred to prosecutors and how do they decide which to pursue.

I have never been a prosecutor so…

Under Tennessee Code Annotated 39-17-1307 , it is illegal to carry a firearm with the intent to go armed. There are some exceptions under the law. For example, having a Tennessee carry permit is one of the exceptions. Ironically, Tennessee’s firearm laws does not define the word carry. The question is can one carry a weapon…

I was in the Circuit Court for Williamson County , Tennessee recently. The court announced that the public defenders had requested not to be appointed to any new cases for a short period of time. The judges agreed and started to appoint local attorneys to represent indigent defendants. The District attorney objected and requested to…