Tennessee appellate panel weighs whether shotgun testimony and presumptive THC test should have stood in Michael Brown case

A three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals heard oral arguments in State of Tennessee v. Michael Malik Deshaw Brown about whether testimony that officers found an AR-style shotgun and ammunition in Brown’s wrecked truck should have been excluded and whether the state proved the THC content necessary to support a simple-possession conviction.

Appellate Public Defender Joshua Lade, representing the appellant, argued the firearm testimony was irrelevant to the charges and “prejudicial” because it could have led jurors to infer Brown was dangerous. Lade told the court that “the first thing the officer found when he opened the door to Mr. Brown’s wrecked truck was an AR style shot gun, as well as a lot of ammunition in the driver cabin,” and said that testimony likely biased jurors in a case that turned largely on credibility.

Lade also challenged the sufficiency of the evidence on the marijuana count,…