Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-205

Waiver of jury trials of first degree murder

Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case State v. Bush (1997)

Most recently applied in State of Tennessee v. John T. Freeland, Jr. (September 2014)

Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; T.C.A., § 39-13-204; Acts 1990, ch. 1038, § 3.

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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) In trials of first degree murder, the defendant, with the advice of the defendant's attorney and the consent of the court and district attorney general, may waive the right to a jury to determine guilt, in which case the trial judge shall determine guilt; provided, that such waiver will not affect the defendant's right to a jury to determine punishment, if the defendant is found guilty of first degree murder.

(2) After a verdict of first degree murder is found, the defendant, with the advice of the defendant's attorney and the consent of the court and the district attorney general, may waive the right to have a jury determine punishment, in which case the trial judge shall determine punishment as provided by this part.

(3) Reference to a jury in § 39-13-204 shall apply to a judge if the jury is waived.

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.