Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Recent blogs have focused on certain crimes against or involving children as defined by Tennessee law. Specifically, the focus has been on crimes where something is distributed, possessed, or acquired by a minor that is essentially illegal because the individual involved is in fact a minor, such as the offenses of tattooing of minors and distribution of alcohol to minors. Another offense along the same vein is the distribution of smoking paraphernalia to minors.

Continue reading "Smoking Paraphernalia" »

As discussed in this website's last blog, enticing an underage individual to buy alcohol, buying alcohol for an underage individual, or allowing an underage individual to drink in a location for which you are responsible carries a myriad of penalties. Fortunately for individuals who find themselves charged with this offense, there are also numerous defenses that can be exploited to fight the charge.

Continue reading "Provision of Alcohol to Underage Individuals: Defenses" »

There are some offenses, such as child sex offenses and homicide offenses, that carry an enormous stigma while some carry almost no stigma at all because a large number of people find the activity socially acceptable. One good example of the latter types of offenses is the crime of smoking marijuana, which actually enjoys such a small stigma in the public eye that organizations have been formed to promote it and some have argued that the prohibition of its use is unconstitutional. A similarly-viewed offense is the crime of providing alcohol to underage individuals.

Continue reading "Provision of Alcohol to Underage Individuals" »

Some criminal statutes seem to essentially codify common sense but are still statutes that have a high propensity to be violated. For example, driving while you are under the influence of an intoxicant is almost never a wise decision, and almost everyone would agree with this statement. However, tens of thousands of well-meaning individuals across the country find themselves charged with such an offense every year. Likewise, individuals are convicted of theft every year even though most individuals would recognize that it is not right to take other people's things. Simply put, there are certain types of conduct which seem obviously wrong, yet there is a temptation or incentive to engage in them anyway.

Continue reading "Tattooing of Minors" »

Anyone who knows anything about the legislative process that produces Tennessee's laws will tell you that statutes are as much a product of political maneuvering as they are actual concerned lawmaking. As such, many statutes are written or amended somewhat haphazardly and embrace conduct that they should not. Also, the need for exceptions to many criminal statutes is not apparent from the initial drafting of the statute, and exceptions to the statute are only carved out after some controversy has grabbed enough attention to make clear that an exception is warranted.

Continue reading "Child Abuse: Spiritual Treatment" »

Like many other offenses, child abuse, which was discussed in our last blog, can be escalated to an "aggravated" charge by the presence of certain conditions. The aggravation of a child abuse charge threatens the offender not only with a much longer sentence of imprisonment, but also increases the likelihood that the offender will lose parental rights with regard to the victim altogether.

Continue reading "Aggravated Child Abuse" »

Criminal offenses very often carry collateral consequences for offenders such as possible deportation, loss of voting privileges, or loss of the right to carry a firearm. One offense that can carry disastrous consequences for defendants in the State of Tennessee, and sometimes rightfully so, is the offense of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment.

Continue reading "Child Abuse" »

"You can't help who you love" has been the title or subject of various songs and poems throughout the years. While it may be true, the State of Tennessee has decided that even if you can't help but love one of your relatives, you better not sleep with them or you could be looking at a felony charge.

Continue reading "Incest" »

When most people think of the term "bigamy," they think of families where one guy has three or four wives and lives in a compound with about twenty kids. However, people very often engage in bigamous conduct by mistake, a circumstance that is recognized by Tennessee's codification of its bigamy laws.

Continue reading "Bigamy" »

It would be hard to find a more sensitive issue in America today than the issues of abortion. Many individuals take the stance that an unborn fetus of any age is a human being and that abortion is unconditionally wrong while many are of the view that a woman has the absolute right to choose whether or not to carry a baby. The view of the Tennessee legislature, at least for right now, is that some abortions are legal and others are not, as codified in T.C.A. 39-15-201.

Continue reading "Criminal Abortion" »

Our last blog focused on the offense of nonsupport, which, like many other criminal offenses, is classified in various degrees. Just like an assault can be elevated to an aggravated assault through the use of a deadly weapon or the causation of serious bodily injury, nonsupport can be elevated into the offense of flagrant nonsupport by the existence of aggravating factors. Accordng to the statute, there are two ways that nonsupport can become flagrant.

Continue reading "Flagrant Nonsupport" »

The majority of criminal offenses are based on the principle that some person has committed an act that he or she is prohibited by law from committing, while a certain few offenses are based on individuals not following through with some task that he or she is obligated by law to perform. Perhaps the most commonly charged of the latter type of offense is the offense of nonsupport, which is codified in T.C.A. 39-15-101.

Continue reading "Nonsupport" »