[Download] "Roger Lee Sawyers v. State Tennessee" by At Knoxville Supreme Court Of Tennessee * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Roger Lee Sawyers v. State Tennessee
- Author : At Knoxville Supreme Court Of Tennessee
- Release Date : January 29, 1991
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 63 KB
Description
Martha Craig Daughtrey, J. In this post-conviction proceeding, we are asked to determine whether relief should be granted to a defendant who was actually
a juvenile at the time of the offense, but who was not afforded a transfer hearing in juvenile court prior to his conviction
in criminal court, because neither he nor the state knew that he was underage. The petitioner, Roger Lee Sawyers, was mistakenly
indicted as an adult in February 1978 and, ignorant of his actual birth date, did nothing to correct the mistake. Indeed,
he compounded it by misstating his age in criminal court in April 1978, at the time he entered guilty pleas to first degree
murder, armed robbery, and grand larceny. When the error was discovered in 1986, eight years after the conviction became final,
Sawyers filed this post-conviction action, contending that his conviction is void because the criminal court lacked subject
matter jurisdiction over him. The state argued in response that the question is not one of subject matter jurisdiction but
of the criminal court's personal jurisdiction over the petitioner. The state also contended that this issue is not subject
to collateral attack.