STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MUSTAFA MALIK SLATER AND TRAMELL RASHA SPARKMAN - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MUSTAFA MALIK SLATER AND TRAMELL RASHA SPARKMAN

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Mar 3, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Edwin Alan Groves, Jr., Assistant Attorney General; and Han Schwendimann, District Attorney General, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

Attorneys 2: E. Kendall White, IV, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho; and Wade B. Romine, Gallatin, Tennessee, for the appellee, Mustafa Malik Slater.

Attorneys 3: Douglas Thompson Bates, IV, Centerville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Tramell Rasha Sparkman.

Judge(s): WEDEMEYER

In this interlocutory appeal, at issue is the appropriate jury instruction to be given in a murder case for a crime committed in 2015 but tried in 2024. In the time between the murder and trial, the Tennessee Supreme Court released an opinion, State v. Thomas, 687 S.W.3d 223 (Tenn. 2024), which abrogated the old common-law accomplice-corroboration rule. The State requested the new jury instruction pursuant to Thomas, and the trial court ruled that fairness concerns required the old common-law instruction. The State sought and obtained an interlocutory appeal. On appeal, it asserts that the trial court erred and that the jury should be instructed pursuant to Thomas. After review, we conclude that the Thomas court intended that the new law apply to trials commencing after March 7, 2024. Because the trial for this matter has not yet commenced, the jury in this case shall be instructed in accordance with Thomas and its conclusion regarding the jury instruction about accomplice testimony. Accordingly, the order of the trial court is reversed, and this case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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