Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals hears dispute over Joshua Lee Shaw’s expungement eligibility

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals heard oral argument in State of Tennessee v. Joshua Lee Shaw during the September afternoon session, with a three-judge panel led by Judge Robert Wedemeyer. Appellant counsel Amber Slaughter urged the court to reverse a trial judge’s denial of Shaw’s petition for expungement, arguing Shaw met the statutory eligibility requirements and had “successfully completed his probation” as shown by a Tennessee Department of Correction letter. The state, represented by Liz Evan, told the panel the statute’s plain language requires meeting “all” conditions of supervised release and that Shaw’s documented probation violations render him ineligible.

The issue before the court was primarily statutory: whether a petitioner who was revoked, then reinstated to probation and later completed the sentence can be considered to have “met all the conditions of supervised or unsupervised release” for purposes of expungement eligibility under Tennessee…