Among the changes recommended by Haslam is a proposal for all second-time domestic violence offenders to serve mandatory jail time of at least 45 days. The mandatory sentence would be 120 days for third and subsequent offenses. This, he says, is important because current law presumes probation unless a prosecutor can show need for jail time, and because the majority of domestic violence offenders are repeat offenders. The proposal attempts to put some teeth in the criminal penalties for domestic violence offenses.

Also, he is recommending tougher penalties for gun related gang crimes. In addition, those who are charged with gun possession who have a prior violent felony convictions would face increased sanctions.

The Governor is also hoping that lawmakers will support his desire to have all doctors and pharmacists to check a prescription drug database before issuing and dispensing of addictive prescription pain medications. This would stop such medical professionals from dispensing drugs if the patient was already receiving them from other practitioners.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the package also suggests diverting more nonviolent drug offenders into drug court and treatment programs rather than prison time. This is definitely a positive move, as such programs have been shown to reduce recidivism more than costly incarceration.

Drug courts use a combination of professionals within the criminal justice system to help drug offenders get the help they need. They aren’t a simple system and require sometimes weekly check-ins with a judge, but are far more preferable to jail time for everyone involved.

The Governor would also like to create a statewide meth-lab cleanup program and move supervision of parolees and probationers from the Board of Probation and Parole to the Department of Correction, allowing the board to focus solely on who deserves parole.

Political figures often release crime packages like this one when changes are needed, but also when they feel as if they need to show the public that “something” is being done about crime and criminal justice matters in the state. Though the price tag may be a turn-off, especially in this trying fiscal time, the package will likely experience success among lawmakers because it balances tough-on-crime measures with rehabilitative measures.

When you are facing criminal charges, it can be hard enough to understand the laws when they aren’t in a constant state of change. If you are accused of committing a criminal offense and need help in deciphering what these charges could mean for you, contact our offices today to discuss your case.

Under the new program, someone who is seen repeatedly in the jail, will be labeled a Chronic Booking Offender, with this label written boldly across their case file. When they are charged, usually with a misdemeanor “quality of life” charge, the prosecutor and judge will see this label and push for a harsher sentence, sometimes sending the defendant to jail for several weeks or months on a charge that would normally only warrant a slap on the wrist and a long night in booking.

Deputy Chief Damian Huggins created the program to save the resources of the county and to keep chronic offenders from coming back. He found that 46 people were responsible for 3% of all arrests in Davidson County last year. The program specifically targets people who were arrested 17 times or more in 2010.

Most of these arrests are for things like public intoxication, littering, loitering and disorderly conduct. But what may have warranted an 8 hour nap in jail before can now lead to a few months.

Huggins says the program is working. In 2010, the men on the chronic offender list were arrested 1,378 times. In 2011, that number is down 46% so far. This year, those men have spent 1,770 in jail. Last year at this time, that number was 2,016. So far, Huggins calculates the savings to taxpayers at $337,000.

Many people have a problem with the new program because many the arrests are due to alcohol and addiction, something that can’t be treated or stopped with a few weeks in jail. Homeless advocates are also upset that the program unfairly targets the homeless as criminals instead of working with them to find solutions to the problems that keep them on the streets.

The homeless population in Nashville has been a problem for quite some time, with the city fighting the presence and visibility of this population in a variety of ways. Criminalizing them and giving them harsher sentences is just another option. After all, Huggins is also the one who offered homeless people one-way bus tickets out of the city.

Regardless of your living situation or any problems you might have with drugs or alcohol, you deserve to be treated fairly in court. If you are facing criminal charges, contact us today for a consultation on your case.

Such is the case in the murder of 22 year old Saret Vit, allegedly murdered and set on fire by a 27 year old parolee she was dating. The case is bringing attention to the state’s parole system and its alleged shortcomings in regards to dealing with parole violations swiftly and severely.

Many are saying the suspected killer should have been in prison, that if the Board of Probation and Parole had done their job, the murder would have never happened. It’s true, the suspect had numerous minor, or “technical” violations on his parole record. But should these violations have sent him back to prison.

The department currently operates under a program called “progressive intervention” according to the Tennessean. This means that technical (non-criminal) violations are first addressed with tighter supervisory sanctions. For instance, if you test positive for a drug test, your parole officer would increase the number of tests you had to be subjected to and perhaps refer you to treatment.

The motivation behind progressive intervention is to reduce the likelihood that an offender will reoffend and end up back in prison on a new criminal charge. It’s designed to assist offenders in reentering the community after serving a prison sentence. A former practice, of zero tolerance, was proven to do more harm than good, leading to this more “lenient” method of supervision.

Critics, however, say the new policies don’t do enough to protect the public. They say that the suspect in Vit’s slaying should have been in prison long ago.

The Tennessean outlines just how many times he violated his parole, with several incidents of failing to pay his supervision fees, removing his GPS monitoring device, failing drug screens, and losing his job after being suspected of selling marijuana. Taken independently of one another, these violations are not incredibly serious and gave the supervising officer no indication that this offender was on the verge of committing a murder.

The story of Vit, a young college graduate, is a tragic one. But one tragic case cannot dictate an entire parole department. Instead, policies and practices must be based on logic, a simple balance of what works and what doesn’t in total, not in one case.

Probation supervision works in much the same way as parole. Technical violations rarely result in prison time. However, if you keep trying your luck, you will eventually hit a brick wall with your probation officer. Furthermore, if you are charged with a new criminal offense, your probation can be revoked and you could find yourself serving the original sentence that got you probation, along with any additional time for the new offense.

When you are facing new criminal charges and are already sentenced under parole or probation supervision, you need an experienced attorney on your side. Contact our attorneys today to discuss the case against you and how we might be able to help.

It’s the broad nature of this law that has many people scratching their heads. Unlike the current harassment legislation, this addition doesn’t require the image to be directed at any specific person, merely that the alleged offender has “reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim”, the victim being anyone who might be offended.

In addition, the photo doesn’t have to be of the victim or any other living person. Offensive photos or depictions of Mohammed, Jesus, or even lewd cartoons could be considered a violation of the offense.

Many are calling the law unconstitutional, and with good reason. The existing harassment law is different in that the “victim” is an intended recipient of harassing communications; the harassment is directed at them. With this law, you simply can’t risk posting anything that anyone might consider distressing, whether it be through a private inbox on Facebook or within a Tweet.

The charge is a misdemeanor. It carries one year in jail and up to $2,500 in fines. I’m sure many people, perhaps even the majority, can think of emails or images they’ve posted online that could be interpreted as offensive to someone, images that could now get them a criminal record in Tennessee.

There’s little doubt this law will be challenged, if only through the appeals process once the law is actually applied to offenders. In the meantime, it’s just one more law for people to be aware of, one that they might want to keep in the back of their head the next time they have an opportunity to forward a lewd joke or offensive photo.

To raise support for the newly passed law, lawmakers of course highlighted extreme examples where offenders had their convictions overturned due to simple and minor “clerical errors”. One such case, profiled here in The Tennessean, involved a man who was sentenced to 29 years for selling cocaine and marijuana. His conviction was overturned and he was freed when there was a typo on the initial search warrant, making it invalid.

Although there aren’t many specifics available on just how free the new law will allow cops and prosecutors to be in their warrant errors, it’s said to allow them “greater leeway” and the ability to move forward in cases where typos and similar mistakes are later found on the warrant.

This isn’t a small matter, however, as the strict rules regarding the accuracy of warrants were written to align with the intentions of the 4^th Amendment, which guarantees protection against illegal searches and seizures.

The Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference was opposed to the new law, as were several civil liberties groups. It is indeed a slippery slope that could lead to some problems of interpretation down the road. Could a spelling error in a suspect’s name be overlooked? What if the misspelled name was actually someone else’s name—would the defense be able to argue that the warrant was served on the wrong person or would that be boo-hoo’d with prosecutors claiming a mere “clerical error”.

The new law was said to have passed quite easily and it’s important to note that Tennessee isn’t alone in this matter. Even the Unites States Supreme Court took a surprising position in a recent May 16 ruling, broadening the acceptable times in which police can search a home without a warrant.

According to The Tennessean, some believe this trend of whittling away at civil liberties will continue. And with the SCOTUS ruling this past month, there are some good indications that such changes won’t be successfully challenged.

Invalidating the evidence in a criminal case is often a strategic move for the defense. If the evidence is ruled inadmissible, it can seriously impact the likelihood that the prosecutor would succeed at trial. However, suppressing the evidence isn’t always easy.

If you are charged with a criminal offense in Tennessee and have questions about the evidence against you, contact us today.

We first blogged about the controversy here, when it was discovered last fall by The Tennessean that Metro Police were dropping a significant number of cases due to lack of victim cooperation.

While it’s not unusual for a victim of domestic violence to change their mind about pursuing charges, that didn’t seem to be the situation with many of these dropped cases. It was discovered that “lack of cooperation” was inferred by something as simple as a single phone call from police gone unreturned by the victim, or an address change that wasn’t told to police.

In 2005, the police dropped around 200 cases. In 2009 that number had risen dramatically to about 5,500. In each of these cases, lack of cooperation was cited as the reason. In 2010, following the Tennessean story, that number had dropped back to 1,200.

The Department never did admit any fault with the dramatic number of dropped cases, nor can they explain the significant improvement last year. “One thought is that perhaps more victims are cooperating,” says the police spokesperson in this updated Tennessean report.

Although they won’t admit there was a problem within the department, the change shows they have done something different to correct the non-problem. It seems they have been making greater efforts to contact victims, whether they’ve moved or changed their number.

In relation to this case, the Mayor ordered an audit of the department’s crime reporting, which came under fire after it was discovered many offenses were being classified as “matter of record” rather than criminal offenses. Again, it was domestic violence cases that were under scrutiny.

One can hope the shakeups that occurred over the past year will serve to help more victims of domestic violence while still providing due process to those defendants accused of the acts. Domestic charges are very serious indeed, and something that can forever change your life.

If convicted of a domestic assault or similar charge, you could be looking at jail time, fines, and the long lasting stigma of being labeled a convicted criminal. If you are facing such charges, speaking with a local defense attorney may be able to help you gain some perspective on the case and what your options are.

Contact our attorneys today for a free consultation on any criminal charge in TN.

According to the Commercial Appeal, the group included individuals from the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Education, who are traversing the country visiting multiple cities in an effort to “get at the roots of violent crime”.

Five years ago, Memphis began the journey towards effective crime prevention with the Operation Safe Community program. The program is preparing to enter Phase 2, involving concentration on youth in poverty stricken areas.

In specific, the Operation Safe Community program will be focusing on the North Memphis and Frayser area where it’s estimated that 50,000 youth are in poverty. Among other things, the program is hoping to implement a system where students kicked out of traditional schools have access to alternative schools rather than simply being put out on the streets.

This area of the city is said to have the highest concentrations of domestic violence, single family homes, teen pregnancy, and gang activity. But like one criminologist said, there efforts won’t be without struggle as preventing crime “takes a lot longer to accomplish”.

They hope that by aligning schools, faith based groups, and police within these communities, they can pull together and rally around the most at risk populations, the kids. Of course, their cause would be helped with some additional funding, something that the group of federal officials may be able to help with. Though there are federal grants available, the Commercial Appeal states that this was not the reason for the observational trip.

A 25% drop in crime is pretty significant. Maintaining that decrease will take some effort from all parties and with Memphis’ “legacy of poverty, domestic and juvenile violence” the effort won’t be easy.

Too often officials are overly concerned with punishing crime rather than preventing it. While the city is working to stop crime before it happens, this also involves using appropriate sentences within the criminal courts to discourage future criminality.

In an effort to prevent crime from reoccurring, there are some alternative sentencing options available within the Memphis area and throughout jurisdictions in the state. Your eligibility for these programs, like probation, depends on the facts of your case and your criminal history. If you’re charged with a crime and concerned about your options, contact our attorneys today for a free consultation.

According to The Tennessean, Memphis Metro Police have documented more than 18,000 non-crime domestic violence reports in the past three years. These reports aren’t counted in crime statistics and are rarely brought to the attention of the public.

Sponsors of a new bill state they would like to see better records on domestic violence incidences and have drafted the legislation to require a detailed report for every domestic encounter within 48 hours. These reports would be tracked in statistics.

The non-crime reports that officers use are called “matter of record” reports and basically dictate that a complaint was made that didn’t amount to a crime. While these have been in use for several years, their prevalence jumped after a man killed his wife following a domestic violence complaint that didn’t result in charges.

It was early 2009 when a young boy called 911 to report his father was trying to kill his mother. Upon arrival at the scene, there was a language barrier and police left without taking significant action and without filing a report. Two days later that husband stabbed his wife to death.

In 2008, before that murder, “matter of record” reports were filed in only 896 of domestic violence reports by the Memphis Metro Police. Following the murder, in 2009, that number climbed to 6,509. In 2010 there were 10,916.

Advocates of the new legislation state it would provide greater accountability for incidences where no arrest action can be taken but where a notation should be made that there was police encounter. Also, the ability to better track these incidences would help the state “develop public policy” because they would have a more accurate picture of the prevalence of domestic violence.

Domestic violence charges are very serious. If you are arrested for assault on a loved one, you won’t only be facing prison time, you could ultimately be facing the loss of friends and family relationships. When facing charges like this, you need someone in your corner. Contact our attorneys today for a consultation on your case.

The problem has clerk’s offices across the state scratching their heads on how to collect from people who simply can’t pay or have no seeming desire to get caught up. Some refer cases to collections and others are pushing for legislation to put some teeth in collection efforts.

While it’s likely that some people who are failing to pay could actually pay, there’s a good chance many don’t have a choice and feel like there’s no point in paying a little when you owe a lot.

Proposed legislation would potentially suspend driving privileges for people who owe the courts. This, opponents state, is an asinine move. After all, how can you earn money to pay fines when you can’t get to work?

Over the past several years, fines and fees have continued to climb. Lab fees, TBI fees, and other various fees pile up, making it harder and harder for people to pay. One County Clerk points out that the legislature has allowed these fees to “balloon out of control” and when paired with high unemployment and a struggling economy overall, the problems is likely going to get worse before it gets better.

When it comes right down to it, most courts are willing to work out payment arrangements with people, taking a fraction of the total owed every month until its paid off. They would rather see some of the money than none at all. However, many people are reluctant to contact the Clerk with issues like this, whether it be an issue of pride or simply the desire to pretend the debt doesn’t exist.

When you are facing criminal charges, jail time isn’t the only concern. Fines and fees can really put a heavy burden on an already strapped budget. If there’s no way around them, having a defense attorney on your side to help work out a payment agreement can help.

Whether you are accused of a crime you didn’t commit or if you admit you made a mistake and are ready to face the consequences, a criminal defense attorney can help. Contact our offices for a consultation on your case today and to see what kind of sentence you might be facing if convicted.

Last year, police in the city had 25,382 domestic violence incidences. That was up 5% from 2008. This year, officials are estimating there will be more than 30,000, another significant jump. Both assaults and killings are on the rise in domestic cases, perhaps a sign of the failing economy.

There are many things that have been shown to influence the number of domestic violence cases and the holidays are just one of these. While families get together and often imbibe, emotions run high. When you mix in financial hardship, stress seems to skyrocket as do the calls for police assistance.

Last year there were 17 domestic violence related killings. So far this year, there are already 21.

Police state that it isn’t just the numbers that are getting worse but also the severity of the assaults. This article points to one case where a woman was left with a permanent dent in her head because of a beating with a baseball bat.

The Department of Justice estimates 25% of women are beaten or raped by a partner during their adulthood. This is a staggering figure and makes it somewhat understandable why the domestic violence laws are designed to protect the victims.

As a defendant, however, if you are accused of a domestic assault, it can seem like an uphill battle to be treated fairly within the Tennessee courts. You may feel like you are being judged long before your first appearance in court.

Having a criminal defense attorney on your side during this time is crucial. If you are facing charges of domestic assault, contact our offices today for a free consultation on your case. Even if you are guilty of assaulting a loved one, we may be able to get you some help.

There are programs available for both victims and domestic violence perpetrators to understand their violent tendencies and better control them. Contact our offices to discuss the case against you and what your options are.