TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on May 10, 2022

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins today vacated the conviction of Claude Francis Garrett who in 1992 was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, Lori Lee Lance, the Tennessean reports. Lance died in a Nashville house fire that Garrett was accused of intentionally starting. The dismissal comes after reports and testimony by witnesses for the Innocence Project and the Davidson County District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit, that said the fire was not intentionally set. The DA’s office in a statement today said Garrett’s original conviction was "based on outdated investigative methods and baseless conclusions.” In his ruling vacating the conviction, Watkins wrote that Garrett has shown “actual innocence” and would not have been convicted by a jury “in light of the new scientific evidence.”