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Tennessee appellate court hears arguments in Johnson appeal over self-defense and consecutive sentence
Summary
In State v. Robert Vernon Johnson, defense counsel argued the record could not be legally stripped of the defendant’s self-defense testimony while the state said surveillance video and other evidence support a guilty verdict; counsel also challenged a consecutive 10-year felon-in-possession term added to a homicide sentence.
The Tennessee appellate panel heard oral argument in State of Tennessee v. Robert Vernon Johnson on questions about whether the trial record legally forecloses a self-defense claim and whether a consecutive 10-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm is excessive.
Ben Russ, defense counsel, told the court he reserved five minutes for rebuttal and summarized the trial evidence, stressing limits in the surveillance footage and his client’s testimony that the victim, identified in the record as Mr. Hall, handled a pistol and acted hostilely in a market and later in the parking lot. "They're approximately 2 or 3 feet away from each other," Russ said, arguing that the positioning and the video’s angles left room for the jury to credit his client’s…
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