By Daniel A. Horwitz: Defending Criminal Contempt Cases in Tennessee[1] Under Tennessee law, courts may punish a person’s contempt of a court order as a criminal offense. Courts’ criminal contempt authority “is designed to preserve the power and vindicate the dignity and authority of the
Fatal "ambiguities [in the trial court's] orders cannot support a conviction of contempt[,]" and "[t]he determination that the order which was allegedly violated lacked specificity and was ambiguous requires a reversal of the convictions of contempt," the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled. The
A trial court's order incarcerating and denying bail pending appeal to a defendant who is appealing his contempt convictions must be vacated, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled. The ruling arises under Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 8—a rarely utilized appellate rule governing