Supreme Court of Tennessee
Administrative Office of the Courts
Internet: www.tncourts.gov
Elizabeth Sykes, Director
Tim Townsend, Deputy Director
For Information, contact Laura Click, (615) 532-6047
December 5, 2008
Remarks by Chief Justice Janice M. Holder
Supreme Court of Tennessee
As many of you already know, the Supreme Court of Tennessee has designated access to justice as a strategic priority this year and in the years to come. On behalf of the Supreme Court, I thank you for joining us today. We are here to explain why we are committed to the challenge of providing access to justice to all of Tennesseans and to begin outlining the direction our commitment will take us.
I will not repeat all of the statistics in the handout you have before you. But it is no exaggeration to say that low-income Tennesseans have little hope of legal assistance when they encounter civil legal problems. Only one in five income-eligible people will receive the legal help they need. We have 75 very dedicated legal aid attorneys in Tennessee, but they simply are not able to assist all of the many low-income Tennesseans who encounter legal problems on a daily basis.
This unmet need is growing greater by the day. In our current troubled economy, the need for civil legal services among Tennessee's indigent and working poor families can only be expected to increase as they face more legal problems caused by unemployment, predatory loans, uninsured medical bills, domestic violence, evictions, and foreclosures. The issues confronting low-income people will require new solutions and an increased need for existing services. As you know, we are also facing state budget cuts.
Buck Lewis, president of the Tennessee Bar Association, has pointed out that the 2008-2009 Tennessee state budget includes $7.5 billion for health care. In contrast, only $3.3 million are budgeted for legal care for low-income families. While health needs are important, unmet legal needs can impact the health, welfare, and safety of Tennesseans in very similar ways.
We know we are not the first to make these observations. The Supreme Court recognizes the efforts of legal aid providers, access to justice organizations, law schools, law firms, and bar associations across this State who have been working hard to address the very urgent legal needs of low-income Tennesseans. The existing gap would be even wider if these organizations had not begun to implement innovative and cost-effective programs. These programs include Saturday pro bono clinics and attorney-of-the-day programs to provide limited representation to otherwise self-represented litigants. There are a myriad of other creative programs to meet the needs of children, patients with terminal health conditions, and even inmates facing reentry into society. Our law firms are continuing to adopt plans to promote pro bono representation by the law firms' members and associates. The Court hopes to aid these efforts by encouraging legal professionals and law firms across the State to participate in existing programs, to implement more of these programs, and to devise other innovative solutions.
To help us in achieving our goals, the Administrative Office of the Courts has recently hired an Access to Justice Coordinator, someone many of you already know well, Becky Rhodes. Our access to justice coordinator will serve as a liaison between the Court and access to justice organizations and other legal professionals who will join us in this effort. Becky has already begun assisting the Court in planning many of the initiatives I will be reviewing with you today and by continuing to develop and foster productive relationships with all stakeholders.
The Court is also redesigning our website to improve the retrieval of court and court-related information. Our redesigned website will be more user-friendly and will provide a single point of access to all of the information and services provided by the state judicial system. Other changes will enable users to obtain detailed information about access to justice issues and organizations.
Educating the public is essential if we are to succeed in finding solutions to this access to justice problem. Polls have shown that most Americans believe that low income people already have a guaranteed right to counsel in civil as well as criminal matters. Seventy-nine percent of citizens in a national survey responded “yes” when asked whether a low-income person would have a right to free counsel if sued in a civil court. Another study showed that 89 percent of those polled agree that legal help in civil matters should be provided for low-income people, but only one-third think that low-income people find it very difficult to obtain that legal help. The results of these polls highlight the need for a broad educational campaign to better inform the citizens of Tennessee about the urgency of the unmet legal needs of the indigent and working poor and to enlist public support to find the best and most comprehensive solutions.
The Court plans to begin its educational campaign by conducting a series of five public meetings in libraries across the state in early 2009. These meetings will take place in Jackson on January 21, in Memphis on February 20, in Knoxville on February 26, in Bristol on March 5, and we are finalizing the date for the Nashville meeting. Community leaders and stakeholders will be invited to participate. We will discuss the best strategies for meeting urgent legal needs and will focus on the role of the judiciary in meeting those needs.
We are fortunate that a portion of the funding for both our access to justice coordinator and these public meetings will be provided by grant money returned to the Administrative Office of the Courts by the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, the Tennessee Legal Community Foundation, and the Tennessee Commission on Legal Education and Specialization. We thank them for their commitment to this initiative.
Our judges are leaders in their communities, and we are asking them to help us educate their communities concerning the gap in civil legal needs in Tennessee. We need them to speak to organizations, and we need their assistance in generating support for pro bono representation spearheaded by their local bar associations and access to justice committees. With the help of the Tennessee Bar Association, the Tennessee Judicial Conference, and the Tennessee Alliance for legal services, we will develop a DVD for use in this educational process.
We need ideas from our judiciary. Some judges have adopted innovative procedures to highlight pro bono activities such as providing preferential docketing of cases in which clients are receiving pro bono representation. Other judges have recognized lawyers' pro bono assistance in lieu of court appointments. We hope that our judges will work with their local organizations to create and update pro bono referral panels. The Court will also be providing the judiciary with a number of specific ideas for ways they can promote greater access to justice in their communities. We know, however, that our resourceful judiciary will find more ways to highlight and promote access to justice.
The Court is also asking the judiciary, bar associations around the state, and access to justice organizations to join the Tennessee Bar Association and the Supreme Court in promoting and publicizing the Statewide Public Service Day which will be held on April 4, 2009. This TBA initiative, called “4/4,” will feature sponsored events providing pro bono assistance in communities around the state for people who otherwise might not have access to legal advice. Statewide Public Service Day will provide an opportunity to focus media attention on the gap in civil legal needs and on the cooperation of lawyers and judges in meeting this challenge.
We also need the contributions of legislators, members of the executive branch, court clerks, government lawyers, law schools, and other groups. We welcome the input of all Tennesseans to help develop, support, and implement policies, programs and projects that advance the ideal of equal justice under the law.
There is one final and very important component to the Court's Access to Justice Initiative that we wish to announce today. The Court will create a statewide Access to Justice Commission under the auspices of the Court. This commission will have the necessary funding and authority to accomplish its mission. That mission will include: studying access to justice issues, developing a strategic plan to address these issues in the future, and taking affirmative steps to implement the plan. We will announce the formation of this Access to Justice Commission and appoint its members on Statewide Public Service Day, April 4, 2009. We believe that Statewide Public Service Day is an auspicious occasion to launch a Commission dedicated solely and specifically to access to justice issues.
The Supreme Court is committed to assuming a greater leadership role in improving access to justice in Tennessee and to finding innovative, effective, and efficient ways to address the very real gap in civil legal services in this state. We invited you here today because we are seeking partners in our effort. Those of you in attendance represent a variety of organizations, and your presence demonstrates both your understanding and your commitment.
We acknowledge leaders of the business community, including leadership from the Tennessee Business Roundtable. We are also pleased to be joined by members of both state and local governments, and I want to recognize both Attorney General Bob Cooper and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, as well as Steve Elkins from Governor Bredesen's office.
I also see that this audience includes members of the General Assembly. Thank you for being here today. We also have a number of judges in attendance. Of course, we have former Justices Frank F. Drowota, Adolpho A. Birch and William M. Barker. We have several judicial leaders, including Judge Willliam Acree, president of the Tennessee Judicial Conference, Chancellor Skip Frierson, president of the Trial Judges Association and Ken Witcher, president of the Tennessee Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges. And there are a number of other judges in the audience as well, including members of the Court of Criminal Appeals, Judges J.C. McLin and John Everett Williams and judges from our trial courts. We have court clerks present as well.
We are encouraging more pro bono mediations across the state, and I am pleased to recognize a number of mediators in the audience. We look forward to your ideas and participation.
And we have representatives of some of those law firms that have adopted pro bono policies for their firms. They are particularly important to our efforts.
I want to acknowledge the current President of the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services Board, Deb House, who is with us today; the TALS Executive Director, Erik Cole, as well as many other members of the Board, including the incoming TALS Board President, Susan Kay, who is an Associate Dean at Vanderbilt Law School. The directors of legal service programs from across the state are all in attendance. A special thanks is due to TALS for developing the handout provided today for this event. The handout outlines the magnitude of the need for civil legal services in Tennessee and the gap that currently exists.
And I see that representatives are here from all of the law schools in the state, including the deans of the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, Kevin Smith; the Nashville School of Law, Virginia Townzen; and the University of Tennessee College of Law, Doug Blaze. There are also educators and students here today from the Institute of Government at Tennessee State University and the Law, Justice & Society Institute at Lipscomb University.
I also want to give a special recognition to the members of the Task Force created by the Supreme Court to study issues concerning self-represented litigants. As other states have recognized, we can expect to see more self-represented litigants in our courts. How to accommodate the needs of these citizens is a growing concern for our judicial system. We have published for public comment rules that will encourage lawyers to provide limited scope assistance to self-represented litigants, and we will build on the work of our Task Force to address the issues involving self-represented litigants. In particular, we would like to recognize University of Tennessee Law Professor Carl Pierce who was chair of that task force and who traveled from Knoxville to be here today.
You will also notice that we are joined in the front of the room by leaders from the Tennessee Association for Justice (TAJ), the Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women (TLAW), and the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA). Partnership with the private bar is critical and is already well underway. The collaboration with the TBA on access to justice issues began with the Court's early participation in the 4 All campaign and continues with the Court's consideration of rule changes proposed by the TBA relating to pro bono representation. We will continue to collaborate with the TBA and other bar associations in a number of ways, including judicial promotion of the Statewide Public Service Day developed by the TBA as part of the 4 All campaign.
All of you who are here today are essential to helping us address the issues we face in providing access to justice to all Tennesseans. We solicit your assistance, and Becky Rhodes will be delighted to receive your ideas to promote increased access to justice in Tennessee. On behalf of the Supreme Court, I thank you for your support today. With your help we will make Tennessee a model for the rest of the country.
(11/13/2008)
The normally staid look and feel of the Chancery Courtroom in Hamblen County will turn festive Saturday, Nov. 15, with the addition of balloons, cookies and toys for a special Adoption Day ceremony creating new families for three children and four parents.
The adoption of a baby boy from Russia by two local attorneys will be formalized by Chancellor Thomas (Skip) Frierson, who also will legalize the adoptions of a 7-year-old brother and his 8-year-old sister. The 9:30 a.m. annual Adoption Day ceremony at the Hamblen County Courthouse in Morristown is the fifth conducted by Frierson, the father of three adopted children, including two from Russia.
“There is no more uplifting part of my job than adoptions,” Frierson said. “National Adoption Day is a wonderful way to raise awareness concerning the need to bring permanency into lives of the hundreds of thousands of children in foster care and orphanages here and abroad.”
In addition to presenting the children with toy bunnies, refreshments will be served and the courtroom will be decorated.
“The Hamblen County Bar Association has, again, contributed to this event,” he said. “It has become one of our favorite days of the year.”
National Adoption Day was designed to draw attention to nearly 500,000 children in foster care in the United States and encourage the adoptions of those who are eligible. In Tennessee, more than 8,200 children are in foster care and nearly 1,800 are available for adoption.
James G. Martin III appointed to fill position in Tennessee’s 21st Judicial District
NASHVILLE – Governor Phil Bredesen has appointed James G. Martin of Franklin, Tenn., to fill the vacancy on the Tennessee Circuit Court, 21st Judicial District, Division II. The 21st Judicial District is composed of Williamson, Hickman, Perry and Lewis counties. The vacancy was created by the resignation of Judge R.E. Lee Davies, which was effective October 1.
“Jim Martin has developed extensive legal experience in the private sector, serving as a family law practitioner for more than 30 years, and I am confident that he will serve the state of Tennessee with honor and distinction,” said Bredesen. “I am pleased to appoint Jim to this seat, and I appreciate his willingness to serve in this capacity.”
Prior to his appointment, Martin has been a partner with the law firm of Stites & Harbison, PLLC in Nashville since 2001. He was a partner with Farris, Warfield & Kanaday, which merged with Stites & Harbison, from 1978 to 2000. After graduating first in his class from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1974, he served as assistant city attorney for the City of Franklin until 1976 and served as city attorney from 1976 to 1988. Martin also served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971 and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, National Defense Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.
“It is a privilege to be appointed by Governor Bredesen to serve the state as a member of the Tennessee Circuit Court,” Martin said. “This appointment is an extraordinary honor that affords me the opportunity to give back to the profession from which I have received enormous rewards and to serve my community in a significant way.”
Martin is an active member of the American College of Trial Lawyers as well as the Tennessee Bar Association where he has served as a member of the Family Law Section Code Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Mercy Children’s Clinic, a not-for-profit pediatric clinic in Franklin, and is a regular attendee of Christ Community Church. Martin and his wife Janis reside in Franklin.
(11/07/2008)
The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the death and prison sentences imposed on Devin Banks of Memphis for killing a friend and severely wounding a second man who was left for dead in the driveway of his home during a robbery.
Banks was convicted of premeditated murder, murder during the perpetration of a robbery, attempted first degree murder and especially aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to death for the 2002 killing of Kadhem Al-Maily and 50 years in prison for robbery and the attempted murder of Hussain Atilebawi. Both victims were immigrants from Iraq who lived and worked in Memphis.
In a unanimous opinion written by Justice William C. Koch, Jr., the court rejected issues raised by Banks in his direct appeal. Chief Justice Janice M. Holder and Justices William M. Barker (now retired), Cornelia A. Clark and Gary R. Wade concurred in the majority opinion, which reversed in part and affirmed a Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) decision.
By law, for a defendant to receive a sentence of death, jurors must find one or more statutorily defined aggravating circumstances. In the Banks case, they found two - that the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding arrest or prosecution and that the victim was killed while Banks played a substantial role in a first degree murder.
The CCA said the evidence did not support the jury's conclusion that Banks killed Al-Maily to avoid arrest or prosecution. The Supreme Court disagreed and concluded that the jury was correct that there were two aggravating circumstances. Both courts affirmed Banks’s convictions and sentences.
Koch wrote that the murder victim was “widely known and respected among the Iraqi community in Memphis because he had a reputation of helping persons in need.” He and Atilebawi had been acquainted in Iraq and became close friends in Memphis.
“After they moved to Memphis, both Mr. Al-Maily and Mr. Atilebawi befriended Devin Banks,” Koch wrote in the opinion. “Mr. Banks was welcome in Mr. Atilebawi’s home and he occasionally spent the night at Mr. Atilebawi’s house.”
The friendship between the Iraqi men and Banks soured because of an incident involving a former girlfriend of Banks and because Banks believed Atilebawi owed him money.
Banks asked a friend, Michael Hilliard, to obtain a handgun and assist him in killing Atilebawi. Three nights later, the men went to Atilebawi’s house, armed with a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol provided by Hilliard. After being welcomed into Atilebawi’s home, Banks borrowed a cordless phone and went outside to call Hilliard who was waiting nearby. When Atilebawi also walked outside, Banks shot him four times, including three times after he was lying in the driveway.
Banks re-entered the house and confronted Al-Maily, who turned over $300 in cash. He ordered Al-Maily to lie face down on a bedroom floor while he and Hilliard loaded items stolen from the house into cars belonging to Atilebawi. They returned to the house, where Banks shot Al-Maily in the head. The men then fled in the stolen cars.
Atilebawi survived his wounds and was able to call for help. He told officers on the scene what had happened. Banks was arrested driving one of the stolen vehicles which contained stolen cash and merchandise.
After being advised of his Miranda rights, Banks gave two confessions. In the second confession, he admitted shooting the victims and provided details of the crime. He was convicted in 2005 and during the penalty phase was sentenced to death.
During a required proportionality review, Koch wrote that the Supreme Court concluded that the sentence of death was not arbitrarily imposed; the evidence supported the jury’s finding of statutory aggravating circumstances; the evidence supported the jury’s finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating evidence; and the sentence was not excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases.
“Mr. Banks’s sentence of death shall be carried out on December 9, 2009, unless otherwise ordered by this court or other proper authority,” Koch wrote.
(10/22/2008)
Former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will be the featured speaker October 27 at the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society's annual dinner.
The event, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Nashville Downtown Hilton, will honor Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Janice M. Holder, Justices Cornelia A. Clark, Gary R. Wade, William C. Koch, Jr., and Sharon G. Lee and retired Chief Justice William. M. Barker.
O'Connor, who served as an associate justice from 1981 until her retirement in 2006, was the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society was created in 1994 to compile, preserve and provide historic and archival information about the Supreme Court and appellate courts, and to promote a better understanding of the role of the Tennessee judiciary.
Video and photography will not be allowed at the dinner and program.
Nashville- Governor Phil Bredesen has appointed Amy V. Hollars of
Livingston, Tenn., to serve as special circuit court judge for the
Thirteenth Judicial District effective immediately. The Thirteenth
Judicial District includes Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Overton, Pickett,
Putnam and White Counties.
Hollars, who is currently a solo practitioner in Overton County, is a
former partner in the Knoxville firm Hodges, Doughty and Carson.
“I appreciate Amy’s willingness to step in and serve the state
as
special judge during the absence of Judge John Turnbull,” Bredesen said. “I
believe her skills, education and practice experience will serve her
well in this temporary capacity.”
Judge Turnbull submitted a notice of physical disability due to a
ruptured disc in his neck and back surgery. Tennessee law provides a
process for the appointment of a special temporary judge in the event
sickness or disability prevents a state judge from carrying out his or
her duties. TCA Section 17-2-116 (a)(1) states: “the governor shall
appoint and commission a special judge who shall have the same
qualifications as the regular judge to attend and hold such courts for
and during the absence or disability of any such judges.”
Hollars, 41, holds degrees from the University of the South and
Vanderbilt University and received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the
University of Tennessee College of Law. Since 2002, she has served on
the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and
the Cumberlands. She and her husband James Hollars have three children.
“It is an honor to have the confidence of Governor Bredesen, and I am
happy to be able to help out by serving in this capacity on a short term
basis,” said Hollars. “I will bring to this appointment a strong
work
ethic and a commitment to fairness and good work for the people of the
Thirteenth Judicial District.”