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Clerk/court opens the session and calls the case "State of Tennessee v John Bassett."
Oral argument in State of Tennessee v. John Bassett centered on whether evidence supports the sentencing aggravator that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" (the I-5 aggravator). Appellant counsel Josh Hedrick contended the prior-day assault and blood evidence are separate or speculative; Assistant State John Bledsoe argued the totality of the evidence (assault testimony, blood patterns, medical testimony and internet searches) permits a reasonable juror to find the aggravator. The bench questioned the limiting principle for applying the aggravator to a single gunshot and probed the medical and temporal evidence about whether the victim remained conscious.
