Courts say NO to an Appeal to DUI Number 9 Case in Murfreesboro

Feb 22, 2016 at 05:57 pm by bryan


A local resident by the name of James Mitchell Smith asked the Tennessee Supreme Court for post-conviction relief in his DUI case that occurred in Murfreesboro. Evidently, this was DUI number 9 for Smith. The appeal was denied on Friday, February 19, 2016.

Smith was involved in an automobile accident in 2011 in Murfreesboro on Florence Road at Broad Street and later indicted for his 9th DUI offense. He was also charged for leaving the scene of an accident involving personal injury and felony reckless endangerment.

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During a 2012 trial he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. The courtroom of Judge David Bragg in Rutherford County ordered Smith to serve six years in confinement and the remaining balance under supervised probation.

After the wreck Smith walked away from the accident scene on foot and refused to stop when ordered to do so by MPD Sgt. James Wyatt. The Sgt. followed Smith to the City Limit Liquor store and asked Smith what he was doing. Court records indicate Smith responded, "He was going to get another drink before [the officer] took him to jail." When Smith was asked to perform a field sobriety test he evidently said no and that "It wasn't his first rodeo."

After being convicted and sentenced to prison, Smith filed for post-conviction relief for the first time in 2014. The courts later denied Smith's post-conviction relief. The case was then refiled with the Court of Criminal Appeals in 2015.

On Friday, February 19, 2016, the State of Tennessee once again denied his request of the case moving forward in an appeal. The decision to deny Smith of the appeal was affirmed by Judge Roger Page in Nashville.

Smith claimed that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. The courts however, disagreed.

Source:

M2014-02558-SC-R11-PC Filed on February 19, 2016
No. M2014-02558-CCA-R3-PC - Filed October 5, 2015

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