Tennessee Murder Case Essay

The cases that I will use for this question is a double murder case in Knoxville, Tennessee that involves four murderers on January 6, 2007 (Howerton, 2013). This case is concerning the death of victims Chris Newsom and his girlfriend, Channon Christian. The couple was kidnapped, sexually and physically abused, and then killed by the four killers in the case. This murder case was one that played out in not only the local news but also the national news that would lead to questions concerning the case for years to come.
The four defendants that were convicted and sentenced in the case of Newsom and Christian each had their trial that was heard separate from each other by the same Judge Richard Baumgartner (Lohr, 2015). During these trials evidence from the defendants concerning the lifestyle of the defendants, mainly Christian, was allowed to be presented in court to altering the innocence’s of the victims in this violent criminal …show more content…
Due to his removal from the bench as a judge, all of the criminal cases that Baumgartner had presided over for the past two years from his expulsion of the bench were now under judicial review by the Higher State of Tennessee Appeals Court. The defendant George Thomas was granted a new trial due to the conviction issued by the jury, in this case, was not signed by the Baumgartner as the 13th juror. The Chris Newsom Act, passed by the Tennessee Legislature, was the basis off of this case and the Appeals Court’s ruling for a new trial due to the technicality of the judge omitting his signature to the jury’s verdict in the case. The Chris Newsom Act provides protection from this ruling from happening again. It shows the Appeals Court that if a judge omits his/her signature from a verdict in a trial, then the judge is seen as agreeing with the verdict of the