It is sad that many people who get accused of crimes in the Nashville area wind up getting convicted even if they did not commit the crime or, legally speaking, they were “not guilty.” In other cases, a Tennessee resident may acknowledge that their conviction is fair and may have even pled guilty to a […]
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has ruled that field sobriety tests are not an appropriate measure for whether a driver is under the influence of marijuana. Although the ruling doesn’t apply directly in Tennessee, it could be influential because it involved a review of the current science on accurately detecting marijuana intoxication. Specifically, the […]
In order to be legal, a search warrant must be based on probable cause. In other words, the officers seeking the warrant need to document a good reason to believe that evidence of criminal activity is likely to be found in a particular location. To search someone’s home, for example, it’s not enough that the […]
A man who has been serving time since 1995 for the murder of a drug dealer has been released with his conviction overturned by a judge. That judge found evidence of serious prosecutorial misconduct that made his trial and conviction unfair. The district attorney’s office is appealing the decision. According to the New York Daily […]
Ledura Watkins was convicted of the 1975 murder of a 25-year-old woman during a home robbery. The only evidence against Watkins was a single hair found on the scene, which police analysts had tied to him using a technique that has since been discredited by the FBI. With the help of the Innocence Project at […]
A former Murfreesboro City Schools band teacher recently sought to appeal certain evidence admitted in his criminal case. The denial of that request for an appeal of a sex crime conviction sends a cautionary note. Specifically, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed that evidence has been improperly admitted in the criminal case. At issue […]
