TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on May 29, 2026

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Friday vacated the second-degree murder convictions of Antonio Demetrius Adkisson, holding that his confession was involuntary and should not have been admitted at trial. In 2017, the 17-year-old was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in Milan, tried as an adult after a juvenile court transfer and ultimately convicted by a jury of two counts of second-degree murder. The court upheld the transfer decision and found that Adkisson had validly waived his Miranda rights, but ruled that his confession was nonetheless involuntary under the totality of the circumstances, constituting a violation of the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution. As a result, the court vacated his convictions and remanded the case for further proceedings, over a partial dissent from Justice Sarah Campbell arguing that the confession was not unconstitutionally coercive. Read more in a press release from the Administrative Office of the Courts.