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Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-11-301

Requirement of culpable mental state

Applied in 26 court decisions — leading case Arthur Cutshall v. Don Sundquist, Govenor of the State of Tennessee (1999)

Most recently applied in Friends of George's, Inc. v. Steven Mulroy (July 2024)

Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; 1990, ch. 1030, §§ 6, 7.

How often courts cite this section

1994200020102020202440
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 person commits an offense who acts intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence, as the definition of the offense requires, with respect to each element of the offense.

(2) When the law provides that criminal negligence suffices to establish an element of an offense, that element is also established if a person acts intentionally, knowingly or recklessly. When recklessness suffices to establish an element, that element is also established if a person acts intentionally or knowingly. When acting knowingly suffices to establish an element, that element is also established if a person acts intentionally.

(3) A culpable mental state is required within this title unless the definition of an offense plainly dispenses with a mental element.

(4) If the definition of an offense within this title does not plainly dispense with a mental element, intent, knowledge or recklessness suffices to establish the culpable mental state.

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.