Tommy Nunley v. State of Tennessee

The State appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court’s grant of post-conviction relief to the Petitioner, Tommy Nunley. In February 1998, Nunley was convicted by a Shelby County jury of aggravated rape and was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment. A petition for post-conviction relief was filed alleging grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. Nunley’s principal claim asserts that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to seek state-funded expert assistance for “DNA testing of specimens collected” by the police. At the conclusion of one of the several hearings conducted by the post-conviction court, the court, on its own motion, directed DNA testing of biological specimens shown to be in the custody of the State. The court was subsequently informed that the specimens had been “misplaced and/or destroyed.” Upon learning of this fact, the post-conviction court granted Nunley’s petition for post-conviction relief concluding “that said evidence could and should have been tested at the time of [Nunley’s] trial, and that because said evidence has been lost and/or destroyed, petitioner’s constitutional right to a fair trial was violated.” Because we conclude that the proof fails to establish prejudice under the standards of Strickland v. Washington, the grant of post-conviction relief is reversed, and the judgment of conviction is reinstated.