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Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-11-203

Defense

Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case State v. Bledsoe (2007)

Most recently applied in State of Tennessee v. Ledarren S. Hawkins (June 2013)

Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

199420002010201330
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A defense to prosecution for an offense in this title is so labeled by the phrase: “It is a defense to prosecution under … that …”

(2) The state is not required to negate the existence of a defense in the charge alleging commission of the offense.

(3) The issue of the existence of a defense is not submitted to the jury unless it is fairly raised by the proof.

(4) If the issue of the existence of a defense is submitted to the jury, the court shall instruct the jury that any reasonable doubt on the issue requires the defendant to be acquitted.

(5) A ground of defense, other than one (1) negating an element of the offense or an affirmative defense, that is not plainly labeled in accordance with this part has the procedural and evidentiary consequences of a defense.

(6) Defenses available under common law are hereby abolished.

Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.