Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

If one were to make a list of the best ways to convince a judge or that he or she is not the kind of person who should receive a harsh sentence after being convicted of forging prescriptions to obtain medication, showing up to court with a forged doctor's note in order to have the sentencing hearing reset would probably be fairly low on the list. Having seemingly exhausted all of the more favorable options, Michelle Austumian did just that at her sentencing hearing this week after she had previously entered a guilty plea to felony counts of forgery and passing a fraudulent check. Unfortunately for Ms. Austumian, the judge and prosecutor did not simply take her word for it that the doctor's note was valid and called the doctor, who informed them that the note was a forgery. After hearing this, the judge ordered Ms. Austumian to custody immediately at which point she passed out and was taken to to the hospital, where she can obtain an authentic doctor's note.

Continue reading "Woman Tries to Avoid Forgery Hearing With...Forged Doctor's Note" »

With the outrageous prices that colleges charge for new and used textbooks and the less-than-vigilant security that often surrounds college bookstores, there can be no doubt that cash-strapped college students across the country steal textbooks and resell them in order to make a little cash on the side. Given the way that textbooks are often sold and resold between students, it would be almost impossible to tell whether or not a book that had been taken from a bookstore was one that was stolen or purchased legitimately. Therefore, textbook theft goes largely undetected at most college campuses.

Continue reading "Student Steals $60,000 Worth of Textbooks From College" »

Advocates for the legalization of marijuana often contend that it does not affect the mind or body as severely as many legalized substances such as alcohol and cigarettes. That argument is made a little stronger every time someone like thirty-one year-old Pennsylvanian Seth Sanders decides to get high on some legal substance and embark on a miniature crime spree. In this case, the offending substance was apparently a stimulant that is packaged and labeled as "bath salts" in order to exploit a loophole in the law and allow the substance to be sold. While there is some debate as to whether the substance should be considered an illegal drug, there can be no debate after reading this article that the “bath salts” can wreak havoc on a person’s mental state.

Continue reading "Man Manages to Outrun Electricity, Can't Avoid Police" »

Every criminal case is different, and there are situations where it is simply best for a criminal defendant to say "OK, I did it," rather than trying to fight the case out in court. Admitting responsibility for a particular occurrence does not, however, mean that an individual is admitting that he or she is guilty of a crime. There are defenses, called affirmative defenses, that an individual can raise in court that negate that individual's guilt from a legal standpoint while still allowing them to admit that they may have taken action that would otherwise render them guilty of criminal conduct. The most well known of the affirmative defenses is probably self-defense, which is an affirmative defense often raised in homicide trials. The affirmative defense of duress is lesser known, but can still be an effective tool in criminal trials where the evidence is seemingly unfavorable to the defendant.

Continue reading "The Defense of Duress" »

If you hold a commercial drivers' license and are reading this blog, the first thing you thought when you saw the title was "wow, that is a lot of alliteration," but the second thing you probably thought was "great, now I have no shot at getting out of those three speeding tickets I accrued in three different states last week." Unfortunately for commercial drivers, the United States Department of Transportation has created the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) which, not surprisingly, oversees safety regulations pertaining to commercial carriers. A recent regulation enacted by the FMCSA, 49 CFR 384.226, is one that is having a very real impact on commercial drivers that live on, or pass through, Tennessee, and is threatening to jeopardize the job situations of many who drive big trucks for a living.

Continue reading "Court of Criminal Appeals Upholds Congressional Crackdown on Commercial Carriers..." »

In what is hopefully a sign of things to come, the New Jersey Assembly has passed a bill that allows teens who are caught "sexting," (a slang term for sending nude or sexually explicit pictures of oneself to another via text message) to avoid being prosecuted as sex offenders. While it may seem like common sense to you and me that teenagers should not face felony charges for texting explicit pictures of themselves to willing recipients, the child pornography laws of the federal and almost every state government allow such behavior to be punished as an offense involving child pornography and punished accordingly, sex offender registry at all.

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Imagine that you are the defendant in a trial where you have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder. At your trial, the state has introduced evidence that it thinks demonstrates that you did the following: declarations previously made by you that you intended to kill the victim, evidence that you procured of a weapon prior to the murder, that you used a deadly weapon on an unarmed victim, that you killed the victim in a particularly cruel manner, that you inflicted multiple wounds on the defendant, that you destroyed or hid of evidence of the killing, and that you were noticeably calm immediately after the killing. Then, when the judge begins to instruct the jury as to what evidence can be considered in deciding whether an individual has committed first-degree murder, he gives the following list of relevant evidence: declarations previously made by a defendant of an intent to kill, evidence of procurement of a weapon by a defendant prior to a killing, use of a deadly weapon upon an unarmed victim, particular cruelty of a killing, infliction of multiple wounds, destruction or secretion of evidence of a killing and a defendant’s calmness immediately after a killing. See anything wrong with that picture?

Continue reading "Court of Criminal Appeals Overturns Murder Conviction" »

It is the question that is routinely asked of every criminal defense attorney in any kind of criminal matter ranging from the smallest misdemeanors to serious felonies. Plainly put, criminal defendants want to know if their attorneys to whom they are going to pay their hard-earned money for criminal representation can guarantee the outcome that every criminal defendant desperately desires: that he or she will not have to go to jail. It seems like a reasonable enough request, but it is one that should alert defendants to trouble if they receive the answer they may think they desire.

Continue reading ""Can You Guarantee That I Will Not Go To Jail?"" »

Truth be told, it is pretty hard to deny that you are serious about growing pot when you have 2,300 pot plants in your basement. It is even harder to deny that you might be a marijuana salesman when you use a four-foot long alligator named Wally to guard your stash from intruders. Thus, it should come as no surprise that twenty-nine year old John Nathan Donna was arrested and charged with what would be labeled in Tennessee as possession of marijuana for resale when federal authorities conducted a sting on Mr. Donna’s Hemet, California home and discovered the aforementioned plants and guard-gator. He was released on a $100,000 bond.

Continue reading "Marijuana Growers Use Alligator to Guard Merchandise" »

It would seem that the most effective way to avoid being caught shoplifting (besides, of course, not shoplifting) would be to remain inconspicuous and not draw too much attention to yourself. To that end, then, it would stand to reason that shoving a rotisserie chicken down the front of your pants and strolling through Wal-Mart might not be the most effective means of evading arrest and getting away with the goods. Thus, it should come as no surprise that twenty-seven year-old Joseph Lee Stringer of Kingston, Georgia was not able to successfully avoid detection with a rotisserie chicken, some hot wings, and a couple of toothbrushes nestled in his nethers last Friday when he attempted to walk out of his local Wal-Mart with the items in tow. He was arrested and released on bond.

Continue reading "Is That a Chicken in Your Pants, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?" »

Chain of custody is a concept that generally finds itself in the spotlight when a certain piece of evidence plays a critical role in a criminal trial. Two examples of when chain of custody issues would iris could occur when a blood test is the only piece of evidence that might link the defendant to intoxication in a murder trial or when a fluid sample is the only piece of evidence linking a defendant to a murder scene in a homicide trial. In such instances, it is of the utmost importance that a chain of custody be established that shows who was in possession of that piece of evidence at all times and how the evidence was handled from its discovery until trial.

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Leaving your child in the care of another person is an extremely nerve-racking proposition for most parents, especially if the person caring for your child is a nanny or some other individual with whom you do not have a prior-existing relationship. In an effort to quell this anxiety, many parents have started installing "nanny-cams" in their homes to allow them to keep an eye on their young ones while they are away. While these cameras serve merely as a sort of "safety-blanket" for parents, the occasional headline is made when these types of cameras capture behavior that is shocking, bizarre, or illegal.

Continue reading "Nanny-Cam Catches Abuse of Toddler" »