(12/27/1999)
Court of Criminal Appeals Judge John Peay Leaving Public Life
After more than 17 years on the bench, including nearly a decade as a state appellate court judge, and three terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge John H. Peay of Clarksville is leaving public life effective Dec. 30.
In a resignation letter to Gov. Don Sundquist, he said his tenure on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has been “one of the most satisfying and enjoyable experiences of my professional life.”
“It is after long thought that I have made this decision,” he wrote. “I served six years in the Tennessee House of Representatives, almost eight years as a circuit judge and over nine years on the Court of Criminal Appeals. I hope that I have given to the State of Tennessee as much as I have received.”
Peay, 64, attended public schools in Clarksville. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He practiced law in his home town for 22 years before his 1982 election as a Circuit Court judge. In May 1990, Gov. Ned McWherter appointed him to the Court of Criminal Appeals. He was elected to eight-year terms in August 1990 and August 1998. He has received the Liberty Through Law Award from the Tennessee Young Lawyers Conference of the Tennessee Bar Association and the Clarksville Barristers.
Peay and his wife, Gail, have three children.
(12/27/1999)
Tennessee Supreme
Court Rejects Death Row Inmate’s Appeal
The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied an appeal by death row inmate Nicholas Todd Sutton, sentenced to death for the 1985 stabbing death of another prisoner at the Morgan County Regional Correctional Facility. Sutton was serving a life sentence for three previous murders when he and a co-defendant killed Carl Estep, a convicted child molester, by stabbing him 38 times with a homemade knife, or “shank.”
Sutton raised nine issues in his post-conviction appeal, which were rejected by the Supreme Court. On direct appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed Sutton’s conviction and sentence in 1988. The trial court and Court of Criminal Appeals later denied his post-conviction appeal.
An inmate who testified at Sutton’s trial said Estep was dealing marijuana in the prison and had sold the defendants some “bad merchandise.” He testified that he witnessed the murder by Sutton and another inmate.
Jurors who sentenced Sutton to death found there were no mitigating circumstances sufficient to outweigh three aggravating circumstances, as defined by state law at the time of the conviction. The aggravating circumstances jurors found were that Sutton had a prior conviction of a violent felony; the murder was heinous, atrocious or cruel; and the crime was committed while Sutton was in a place of lawful confinement.
(10/11/1999)
State Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Greene County Murder Case
The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied an appeal by death row inmate Timothy Morris, whose victim was bludgeoned to death in 1981 during a business trip through the state. Morris, a drifter, was convicted of the murder in Greene County and sentenced to death.
In an order filed Monday, the court denied Morris’ application to reopen previously denied post-conviction petitions to appeal. In denying the application, the Supreme Court rejected Morris’ claims that his constitutional rights were abridged because women were systematically excluded from serving as grand jury forepersons and that his 19-year confinement on death row constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
His victim, Hunter David Tait, 37, met Morris in Nashville and hired him to help produce stained glass planters, which he sold at craft fairs. Several days after the two men were seen traveling together in Tennessee, Morris arrived at the home of relatives in North Carolina in possession of Tait’s truck, stained glass inventory and personal items, including a checkbook. Tait’s body was discovered in Greene County.
The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Morris’ conviction and sentence in 1982. His first post-conviction petition, filed in 1983, was denied by the trial court, Court of Criminal Appeals and state Supreme Court. The court also rejected an appeal by Morris earlier this year.
Since 1995, Tennessee inmates hoping to have their sentences overturned or appeals granted on constitutional grounds have been limited to a single post-conviction petition to be filed within one year in most cases.
(Oct. 8, 1999)
750 Local Students Participating in Supreme Court Program
More than 750 students from 22 public and private high schools in Shelby County will participate Nov. 17-18 in a program developed by the state Supreme Court to educate young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.
The students and their teachers will attend special Supreme Court sessions at the Shelby County Courthouse where justices will hear oral arguments in five actual cases. Each group of about 150 students will hear one case before the Supreme Court. Following oral arguments, students will meet for question and answer sessions with the attorneys who presented each side in their cases.
All participating students and teachers also will be guests for lunch with the Supreme Court. During lunch, sponsored by area businesses and organizations, the five justices, local judges, city, county and school officials and local attorneys will be seated at tables with the students.
Schools participating Nov. 17 in SCALES - an acronym for the Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students - are The Hutchison School, Evangelical Christian, Memphis University School, Memphis Catholic School, Collierville, Bartlett and Germantown High Schools, Immaculate Conception, Lausane, Bishop Byrne, Central Baptist, First Assembly Christian and Briarcrest High School.
Schools participating Nov. 18 are St. Mary’s Episcopal School, Christian Brothers High School, Harding Academy, St. Benedict, St. Agnes, Houston, Bolton, Millington and Cordova High Schools.
The SCALES Project is being coordinated in Shelby County by Circuit Court Judge Robert
Childers and Criminal Court Judge Carolyn Wade Blackett. County Commissioner Mark Norris and members of the Memphis Bar Association also are participating in preparations for the program.
"The Tennessee Supreme Court believes that knowledge and understanding of the judicial branch of government are essential to good citizenship,” Chief Justice Riley Anderson said. “The SCALES Project is designed to educate young participants about the system they will inherit. The interaction we have with the students at lunch and throughout the day also renews our faith that our nation’s future is in good hands.”