TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Oct 7, 2022

The Tennessee Supreme Court today reversed a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals that granted relief to a defendant on an unpreserved and unpresented issue. The court found that the appeals court abused its discretion by granting the relief without giving the parties fair notice and an opportunity to be heard on the matter. The court said that while appellate courts have limited discretionary authority to review unpresented and unpreserved issues, they must provide fair notice and an opportunity to be heard before deciding such an issue. The decision came in the case of Lynn Frank Bristol, who was convicted on two counts of aggravated sexual battery in Coffee County and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Bristol had claimed his conviction should be overturned because of alleged discrepancies between the written jury instructions and the trial court’s oral jury charge.