(12/28/2000)
Board Experiencing Two Firsts
The state Board of Law Examiners is experiencing two firsts with the appointment by the Tennessee Supreme Court of a woman to serve as a board member and an African-American as its president. The board governs the Tennessee bar examination and the admission of attorneys to practice law in the state.
Marlene Eskind Moses, a Nashville attorney, becomes the first woman on the three-member board and the first graduate of the Nashville School of Law appointed to serve. Memphis attorney Prince C. Chambliss, Jr. was appointed by the court to serve as president, succeeding attorney H. Lee Barfield II of Nashville. Barfield is resigning from the board effective Dec. 31 after serving as a member since 1986 and as president since 1992. Chambliss became the first African-American board member when he was appointed in 1988.
In his letter of resignation to the Supreme Court, Barfield said he is leaving “to allow new leadership and fresh ideas to direct the work of the board.”
“I am pleased that the board has been able to strengthen the bar examination, to preserve, sustain and enhance the enduring values of good moral character and fitness in our profession, to modernize the rules governing licensing of attorneys and to assist the law schools in Tennessee to improve the quality of their legal education programs,” he wrote.
In February 2000, 204 law school graduates took the Tennessee bar examination and 141 passed. In July, 617 took the exam and 494 passed. Also in 2000, 15,242 attorneys paid a required annual registration fee to the state Board of Professional Responsibility.
(12/18/2000)
Local Judges Prepare for New Parenting Plan
Judges across the state are preparing for the state’s new Parenting Plan requiring divorcing couples with minor children to take part in a program designed to ease the trauma of the family breakup on the youngest members and protect their emotional and financial well-being.
Beginning Jan. 1 when the law takes effect, parents who are ending their marriages will be required to comply with the multi-faceted plan. Two key elements are a minimum of four hours of mandatory parenting education and a very detailed written parenting plan. The emphasis is on keeping both parents involved in their children’s lives.
Enacted by the 101st General Assembly, the Parenting Plan is a significant change in domestic relations law in Tennessee and is expected to be a model for other states. The law removes the terms “custody” and “visitation” from divorce proceedings. Rather, in a divorce or legal separation where there are minor children in the family, both parents will cooperatively consider and prepare their parenting plan.
The written plan will detail the obligations of each parent and list who will be caring for the children under normal and special circumstances. It will specify who makes decisions for the children and spell out child support arrangements. The plan also tells parents how they may resolve problems through mediation without going back into court.
The education component includes discussions of the legal process, alternative dispute resolution, marriage counseling, the judicial process and common attitudes and conduct involving domestic violence. The classes are available statewide and the providers are offering them at reduced prices to low-income parents.
The new law is based on a pilot project conducted over the past two years in six of Tennessee’s 31 judicial districts. The participating judges, clerks, attorneys and parents gave the program high marks on effectiveness in reducing stress on families involved in divorce. In addition, the pilot project courts saw a significant decrease in post-decree filings by parents with parenting plans.
(11/28/2000)
Chief Justice, Legislators Tackling Judicial Selection Process
Chief Justice Riley Anderson of the Tennessee Supreme Court is part of a Tennessee delegation invited to attend a two-day summit in Chicago to discuss and debate systems used to select judges nationwide. Other Tennesseans attending the conference Dec. 8-9 are state Sen. Joe Haynes, D- Goodlettsville, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee; Rep. Jere Hargrove, D-Cookeville, a member of the House Judiciary Committee; and Kathryn Reed Edge, president of the Tennessee Bar Association.
“We will be looking at how judicial campaigns are conducted and how to increase voter awareness and participation in these important elections, among other related topics,” Anderson said. “Each state has its own judicial selection system and we will be sharing ideas as to how the various processes might be improved. The Tennessee delegation may come to the conclusion that change is not needed here, or we may leave the summit with options warranting further discussion.”
In Tennessee, there are two judicial selection systems - popular elections for local and trial judges and yes-no retention elections for the 29 judges on the state Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals. When a trial or appellate court vacancy occurs between elections, the 15-member Judicial Selection Commission recommends three names to the governor. The governor then appoints one of the three recommended applicants. To retain the position, the appointed judge must run in the next August biennial election.
The summit, initiated by Texas Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips and Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis, is being coordinated by the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va. More than 100 chief justices, legislators, academic experts and representatives of national organizations involved in judicial selection reform will attend.
(11/01/2000)
Supreme Court Rule Sets Procedure in Capital Cases
The Tennessee Supreme Court has enacted a rule formalizing the legal process for setting execution dates in capital cases and establishing filing deadlines and other requirements for prosecution and defense lawyers.
“Whenever a death-row prisoner has unsuccessfully pursued state post-conviction relief through appeal or application for permission to appeal to this court, should there be no execution date in effect, the state attorney general shall file a motion requesting that this court set an execution date,” the Supreme Court rule states.
Under the rule, defense attorneys must file any response within 10 days of the motion requesting an execution date. The same 10 day deadline applies under a separate provision requiring the attorney general to file a motion with the Supreme Court requesting an execution date after completion of the standard three-tier appeals process - direct appeal of the conviction and death sentence, state post conviction appeal and federal habeas corpus proceedings.
In the response, attorneys are to include any legal or factual grounds for delaying the execution date or supporting a claim that no date should be set or no execution should occur, including a claim of incompetency. In a ruling last year, Van Tran v. State, the court said prisoners must file incompetency claims within 10 days of a motion by the state attorney general seeking an execution date. In a 1986 decision, Ford v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court directed states to establish procedures for determining the sanity of death-sentenced inmates.
The court will set an execution date no less than 30 days from the date of the order granting the state’s motion. If the inmate receives a stay or reprieve extending through the execution date, a new date will be set by the court when the stay or reprieve has been lifted or has expired. The new date will be no less than seven days after the date of the order setting it.
Other provisions of the Supreme Court rule spell out how motions, responses and other legal documents in capital cases are to be filed and how filing deadlines will be computed.
(10/27/2000)
300 Area Students Participating in Supreme Court Program
Nearly 300 students from nine public and private high schools in the 26th Judicial District will participate Nov. 16 in a state Supreme Court program designed to educate young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.
Students and their teachers from high schools in Chester, Henderson and Madison counties will attend a special Supreme Court session at the Criminal Justice Complex in Jackson where justices will hear oral arguments in three actual cases. 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 local organizations, students will be seated at tables with the five Supreme Court justices, local judges and attorneys, city, county and school officials.
Schools participating in SCALES - an acronym for the Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students - are Jackson Central Merry High School, South Side High School, Trinity Christian Academy, North Side High School, Scotts Hill School, University School of Jackson, Chester County High School, Jackson Christian High School and Lexington Christian Academy.
Teachers whose classes are involved in the project attended a three-hour professional development session in Jackson to prepare for the SCALES Program. Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Jerry Smith of Nashville discussed the state and federal court systems, answered questions and presented an overview of the cases to be argued when students attend SCALES. Teachers also were provided with notebooks of materials to use in their classrooms, including suggested activities, and SCALES Project handbooks for each student. Circuit Court Judge Don Allen is coordinating the project in the 26th Judicial District.
"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.”
Local judges and attorneys met with teachers at the professional development session to schedule classroom visits to review the cases and issues to be considered by the Supreme Court. After justices rule in the cases, copies of the court's opinions will be provided to the classes.
"The SCALES Project is important because it creates a partnership between the judiciary, the Bar and schools to promote a better understanding of the judicial branch of government," the chief justice said. "We hope that teachers will use the materials to make judicial education a continuing part of their curriculum."
Issues in the cases students will hear are whether a verbal exchange between a burglary suspect and police officers was a “custodial interrogation” requiring his Miranda warning and, if so, whether evidence against the defendant should be suppressed; whether the state Court of Appeals erred in upholding a trial court decision denying a wife’s petition to modify a final divorce decree; and whether the Court of Appeals erred in ruling that the Memphis Housing Authority properly ended a woman’s lease after she failed to cause a guest to refrain from criminal activity in her apartment.
Including SCALES in the 26th Judicial District, nearly 9,000 Tennessee students from 233 schools have taken part in the project since it was initiated by the state Supreme Court in 1995.
(10/27/2000)
Tennessee Hosts Conference for State Court Administrators
Judicial system administrators from nine southeastern states and officials from the National Center for State Courts will be in Nashville Oct. 30-31 for a conference hosted by the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts.
Court administrators from Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida are attending the annual regional meeting of the national Conference of State Court Administrators. COSCA was created in 1953 to improve state court systems. Membership consists of state court administrators or equivalent officials from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands.
“The southern regional conference will focus on issues of concern and common interest to court administrators,” said Cornelia Clark, director of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. “Court systems across the nation are grappling with rapid caseload growth and other problems created, in part, by societal changes. Conferences such as this one are valuable because, by gathering and sharing information, we can avoid having to come up with 50 different solutions to the same problem.”
Sessions at the conference, to be held at the state Capitol, include Judicial Performance and Evaluation, Courts on the Internet, the Tennessee Parenting Plan and Pro Se Litigants.