TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Supreme Court Reinstates Denial of Post-Conviction Petition

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Oct 2, 2020

The Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously held today that an appellate court does not have the authority to consider an issue, or raise an issue on its own, that was not raised in the post-conviction trial court. The decision came in the case of Marty Holland, who pled guilty to attempted first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery and agreed to serve a 17-year sentence. He also agreed to concurrently serve a federal sentence for an unrelated bank robbery. Holland later argued that (1) his conviction was the result of an unlawful search and seizure, (2) his conviction was the result of an unlawful bench warrant, (3) he lacked effective assistance of counsel, (4) he had newly discovered evidence, and (5) the evidence used in the conviction was obtained illegally. The trial court and Court of Criminal Appeals denied the relief but the appeals court remanded the case for a hearing to consider whether Holland was fully informed of the circumstances of agreeing to serve concurrent state and federal sentences. The Supreme Court found that the concurrent sentencing issue had been waived and could no longer be a basis for relief. Read the opinion.

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