State of Tennessee v. Stanley Allen
Syllabus
The Shelby County Grand Jury issued an indictment charging Defendant, Stanley Allen, with aggravated statutory rape, solicitation of a minor, and sexual battery. Following a trial, a jury found Defendant guilty of solicitation of a minor and sexual battery. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge of aggravated statutory rape. Defendant later entered a no contest plea to a lesser-included offense of assault by offensive touching on this charge. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed an effective one-year sentence suspended to three years of supervised probation, and the court denied Defendant's request for judicial diversion. On appeal, Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for sexual battery and that the trial court abused its discretion in denying judicial diversion. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.
How courts have described this case
Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.
- because defendant initiated altercation and created circumstances by which he alleged he could not retreat, defendant was not entitled to self-defense instruction
- “consciousness of innocence is of very little value, because there are a variety of different motives that can prompt action consistent with innocence”
- because defendant was informed of his rights prior to giving statement, there was no intentional violation
- “for sudden combat to be the basis of a voluntary manslaughter instruction, the ‘victim . . . must attack the defendant or at least strike a blow against the defendant’ ”
- defendant not entitled to self-defense instruction where, viewed in light most favorable to defendant, assault had occurred well before shooting and no evidence was offered of assault or threat at time of shooting; defendant could have retreated or attempted to retreat
- “[T]he defendant would not be entitled to a self-defense instruction where he initiated the confrontation and failed to retreat or attempt to retreat. . . [and] presented no evidence that there was no reasonable means of escape available”
Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).
Judges: Judge Robert L. Holloway, Jr.
Read full opinion on CourtListenerSourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).
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