Law Commons^™

Criminal Law And Procedure -- 1963 Tennessee Survey, Robert E. Kendrick

Vanderbilt Law Review

1. Homicide. A number of years ago the Tennessee Supreme Court adopted the common law principle that one is justified in taking life in defense of his habitation when actually or apparently necessary to repel an attempt by another to enter forcibly or violently under circumstances creating a reasonable apprehension that the assailant's design is imminently to commit a felony therein or to assault or offer personal violence or inflict personal injury on an inmate so that there are reasonable grounds for concluding that life is endangered or great bodily harm is threatened thereby.'

Flippen v. State, a homicide case, …

The Use Of Coerced Confessions In State Courts, J. A. Spanogle

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is now well settled that involuntary confessions must be excluded from evidence in all criminal trials in state courts. It has been difficult, however, to distinguish a voluntary confession from an involuntary one, because the term "involuntary" is not well defined. This lack of definition, which creates great problems for state trial and appellate courts in attempting to apply the rule to individual cases, has, in turn, stemmed from a lack of understanding of the reasons for excluding involuntary confessions. The United States Supreme Court has handed down thirty-four coerced confession cases, holding confessions admissible in some factual situations …