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Court of Criminal Appeals hears challenge to dismissal after defendant briefly left courtroom
Summary
At an oral argument at the University of Memphis Law School, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals heard counsel for Laura Clifton say a trial court improperly dismissed her post-conviction petition with prejudice after she briefly left the courtroom; the State urged the appeal be dismissed as untimely. The judges pressed both sides on whether the record contains sufficient findings to support dismissal and on waiver of the filing deadline.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals convened at the University of Memphis Law School to hear oral argument in Laura Clifton’s appeal, which centers on whether a trial court’s dismissal with prejudice of her post-conviction petition after she briefly left the courtroom was an abuse of process and whether the appeal was filed timely.
William Gill, counsel for Clifton, told the three-judge panel that Clifton entered a plea in May 2024 to two counts and received a two-year sentence, and that the plea agreement and plea submission hearing included an assurance — relied upon by Clifton — that she would not be placed on the offender registry. "She was willing to serve time to avoid being on the registry," Gill said, arguing that the state later placed her on the registry contrary to that assurance and that the state…
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