News
March 16, 2004
Students from three public and private high schools in Dickson County will hear arguments in two actual Supreme Court cases as participants in a program designed to educate young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.The 223 students and their teachers will attend a special Supreme…
April 2, 2004
Circuit Court Judge J.S. “Steve” Daniel of Murfreesboro will step down from the 16 th Judicial District position he has held for 24 years to take senior judge status effective Sept. 1. Retired Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Jerry Scott also has been granted senior judge status effective July 1 and…
May 4, 2004
Students from four local high schools will participate May 6 in a state Supreme Court program designed to educate young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.The 420 students and their teachers will attend a special Supreme Court session at the Blount County Justice Center where…
May 21, 2004
In a 4-1 decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Criminal Appeals opinion and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Richard Odom, convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of a Memphis woman, Mina Ethyl Johnson.The majority opinion, written by Justice E. Riley Anderson, said the…
May 24, 2004
American Legion Boys State delegates from high schools in all 95 counties will participate June 2 in the SCALES Program, an acronym for the Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students. SCALES, a Tennessee Supreme Court initiative, educates young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of…
June 17, 2004
NASHVILLE — Governor Phil Bredesen today named Mark Gwyn as the new director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.Gwyn, who currently serves as assistant director in charge of the TBI’s Forensic Services Division, will become the eighth director in the Bureau’s 53-year history. He succeeds…
July 7, 2004
Foreign language court interpreters from across the state will gather in Nashville Friday and Saturday for two days of training sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Courts.The first Tennessee Court Interpreter Conference, funded with a federal grant, will begin at 10 a.m. Friday at the…
July 26, 2004
Williamsburg, VA (July 26, 2004) – In response to ongoing uncertainty on how the recent Supreme Court sentencing decision, Blakely v. Washington, affects the state courts, the National Center for State Courts prepared a document that analyzes this decision’s impact. It is available at www.…
August 11, 2004
Retired judges will be designated by Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota to sit when necessary for Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., while he undergoes chemotherapy and radiation treatments."This therapy will, no doubt, affect my ability to discharge all of the duties of my office," Birch said Wednesday. "…
August 12, 2004
Connie Clark, administrative director of Tennessee courts, has been named to the American Bar Association’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the American Jury. Clark was appointed by incoming ABA President Robert J. Grey, Jr., who announced an initiative aimed at bolstering interest in jury service and…
August 23, 2004
Issues raised in an appeal by death row inmate Gdongalay P. Berry have no merit, the Tennessee Supreme Court said Monday in a decision affirming the two death sentences he received for his role in killing two acquaintances to prevent them from identifying him."After a careful and exhaustive review…
August 25, 2004
The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld two death sentences a Davidson County jury imposed on Christopher A. Davis for the 1996 deaths of two men who were bound and shot multiple times as one victim cried and begged for his life.Davis was sentenced to death for his role in the murders of Gregory…
September 8, 2004
Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentences for Murders of Two Elderly WomenThe Tennessee Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of convicted killer Robert L. Leach Jr. and upheld the death sentences jurors imposed on him for strangling to death two elderly Nashville women who befriended him.Justice…
September 28, 2004
Students from 10 public and private high schools in Williamson, Perry, Lewis and Hickman counties will participate Oct. 8 in a state Supreme Court program designed to educate young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.The 500 students and their teachers will attend a special Supreme…
September 28, 2004
The Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Criminal Appeals opinion and reinstated the convictions and death sentence Memphis gang member Gregory Robinson received for his role in a kidnapping and premeditated first degree murder."Upon review, we hold that the Court of Criminal Appeals…
October 1, 2004
A student from each of Tennessee's four law schools has been chosen to receive a scholarship from the Tennessee Judicial Conference FoundationMary Hamm, a student at the University of Tennessee College of Law, is recipient of the first annual $1,000 Houston M. Goddard Scholarship. Goddard, who died…
November 15, 2004
The names of more than 200 Tennessee appellate court judges who have served since 1796 when the state was founded are etched on imported black marble plaques to be unveiled at a 2 p.m. public ceremony, Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the Historic U.S. Post Office and Courthouse Building on Main Street in…
January 6, 2005
For the first time, judges in Tennessee will have mandatory guidelines to use in deciding whether certain court records may be sealed - or kept confidential - under a rule adopted Thursday by the Tennessee Supreme Court.The court entered an order adopting a number of amendments to the rules of…
January 18, 2005
In a unanimous decision setting a new legal standard for finding reckless infliction of emotional distress, the Tennessee Supreme Court has cleared the way for a $68 million child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to go forward.
“We hold that reckless infliction…
January 28, 2005
The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld a jury’s verdicts convicting a Memphis man and sentencing him to death for killing his wife by beating her in the head and face with a skillet and a horse shoe after she told him she wanted a divorce.Justice Janice Holder, writing for a majority of the court,…