Latest Tennessee Supreme Court News

Tennessee asks high court to take over voucher lawsuit

May. 21, 2020 5:26 PM EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — School voucher advocates are asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to take up the case of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a program that would let parents use public tax dollars for private school tuition. The Tennessee attorney general's office, as well as pro-voucher...

Another Tennessee inmate seeks execution delay amid virus

May. 5, 2020 2:54 AM EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Another death row inmate in Tennessee is seeking a delay in his execution date this year due to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. Attorneys for 59-year-old Harold Nichols last week asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to reschedule his Aug. 4 execution. The filing says the...

This undated photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Byron Black. Tennessee has set two new execution dates, just days after putting to death its seventh inmate in the past year-and-a-half. On Monday, the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered an Oct. 8 execution date for inmate Black and a Dec. 3 execution date for Pervis Payne. (Tennessee Department of Correction via AP)

2nd Tennessee inmate seeks execution delay amid coronavirus

Apr. 29, 2020 3:15 PM EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee death row inmate is hoping to become the second in the state to have his execution delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Attorneys for 64-year-old Byron Black on Wednesday requested that the Tennessee Supreme Court reschedule his execution scheduled for Oct. 8. The...

FILE - In this Oct. 13, 1999, file photo, Ricky Bell, then the warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn., gives a tour of the prison's execution chamber. An attorney said her team has lost “critical time” in representing a Tennessee death row inmate slated for execution in June, 2020, due to the new coronavirus and restrictions in place to curb its spread. The attorney for inmate Oscar Smith gave the update in a state Supreme Court filing recently to argue further that his execution should be put on hold due to the health pandemic. Smith's legal team asked for the stay of execution due to COVID-19 in March, 2020.(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Tennessee delays June execution due to coronavirus

Apr. 17, 2020 4:56 PM EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's Supreme Court on Friday postponed the scheduled execution of a death row prisoner by eight months because of the coronavirus. Oscar Smith had been sentenced to die on June 4 for the murders of his estranged wife, Judy Lynn Smith, and her two sons from a previous...

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