MARTIN, Tenn. (September 29, 2015) – The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals will hear cases today from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., on the University of Tennessee at Martin main campus. The court will convene in the Boling University Center’s Watkins Auditorium. The proceedings are open to the university community, the general public and the news media.
No witnesses, juries or testimonies are present in the Court of Criminal Appeals, which relies solely on oral and written arguments presented by defense and prosecuting attorneys.
The judges will hear four cases during the UT Martin session. Each appeal will feature 20-minute oral arguments from each attorney, after which the judges will leave the auditorium to deliberate. Students will have approximately 15 minutes to question the attorneys during this time.
Judges John Everett Williams, Roger A. Page and Timothy L. Easter will preside over this session. Williams, of Huntingdon, was appointed to the court in 1998 and is a graduate of the UT Martin criminal justice program. Page, of Jackson, was appointed in 2011 and Easter, of Nashville, joined the court in 2014. Judges for the Court of Criminal Appeals are elected on a “retain-replace” ballot every eight years.
The Court of Criminal Appeals was created by the legislature in 1967 to hear trial court appeals in felony and misdemeanor cases and post-conviction petitions. The 12 members of the court sit monthly in panels of three.
The court’s visit to UT Martin is hosted by the UT Martin Criminal Justice Program, the Department of Behavioral Sciences and the College of Education, Health and Behavioral Sciences, as well as the Kappa Epsilon chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, the National Criminal Justice Honor Society.
For more information, contact the department at 731-881-7520. For media assistance, contact Erin Chesnut or Nathan Morgan, UT Martin Office of University Relations, 731-881-7615.
