STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOSHUA DAMONE PEWITTE - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOSHUA DAMONE PEWITTE

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Dec 8, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Kendall Stivers Jones, Assistant Public Defender – Appellate Division, Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference (on appeal); and Harold E. Dorsey, Trenton, Tennessee (at trial), for the appellant, Joshua Damone Pewitte.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Ryan Davis, Assistant Attorney General; Frederick H. Agee, District Attorney General; and Scott G. Kirk and Nina W. Seiler, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): GREENHOLTZ

A Gibson County jury convicted the Defendant, Joshua Damone Pewitte, of three counts of rape of a child. The trial court imposed an effective sentence of eighty years’ imprisonment. On appeal, the Defendant broadly challenges whether the election process was sufficient to protect against the risk of a non-unanimous verdict. Specifically, the Defendant raises three inter-related issues regarding the election process on plain error review: (1) the State made its initial election outside the presence of the jury and did not mention its election to the jury until its rebuttal closing argument; (2) the State referenced examples of uncharged conduct during its closing argument; and (3) the language from the trial court’s unanimity instruction was different from the State’s election and closing argument. Upon our review, we respectfully affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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