TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Nov 30, 2017

The Tennessee Supreme Court reinstated a life sentence without the possibility of parole that defendant Kevin Patterson received under Tennessee’s three strikes law. The defendant argued the state did not provide him with the required pre-trial notice that it planned to use his prior convictions to obtain an enhanced sentence. The Supreme Court held that while the notice was imperfect, the defendant was not prejudiced by the errors. The unanimous opinion was authored by Justice Cornelia A. Clark.