TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Dec 3, 2020

An article on general sessions court reform in Tennessee written by Hamblen County Assistant Public Defender Willie Santana has been published in the latest issue of the Lincoln Memorial University Law Review. In How to Make Better Sessions Judges: Appellate Review A Proposal to Reform Tennessee’s General Sessions Courts for the 21st Century, Santana writes about general sessions judicial misconduct and its negative impact on those involved in criminal cases. He also proposes ways in which the court can be reformed, including “injecting appellate review into the general sessions court” as a means of improving the system. Santana, a TBA member and member of the TBA’s Leadership Law Class of 2020, was featured in an article from the New York Times last year on overcrowding and poor conditions in the Hamblen County jail.