Christian-Newsom Torture Murder Case - Update on Davidson's Appeal

Previous post can be found HERE.

GUEST ENTRY by DAVID IN TENNESSEE!

This is a guest entry by our long-time contributor David in TN. Sprocket

February 28, 2019
Oh Thursday, February 28, 2019, Judge Walter Kurtz denied Lemaricus Davidson’s bid for a new trial in the Christian-Newsom torture murder case. 

Because of the heavy publicity the case received locally, it would have been expected the defense would request a change of venue. In most states, this means moving a trial to another city. In Tennessee, an outside jury is brought in. For the other trials for this case, juries were bused into Knoxville from Nashville, Chattanooga, and Jackson.

Since the defense asked for a Knox County jury, and rebuffed the presiding judge when he tried to talk them into an outside Knoxville jury pool, the defense was not supposed to be able to appeal on this issue.

At the January hearing, Davidson's new legal team, who specialize in capital cases, tried to do exactly that.

"The judge shot them down."

Judge Kurtz ruled Davidson "is not entitled to the benefit of hindsight. The fact that a strategy does not work does not make the lawyer ineffective."

The judge found Davidson and his lawyers made the wrong decision on their own. Davidson's attorneys testified at the hearing they hoped jury selection would drag on and a plea bargain would result.

The jury was seated on the first attempt.

The best opinion based on legal precedent was this appeal would fail and it did.

T&T's complete coverage of the Christian-Newsom Torture Murder Case