Franklin Criminal Defense Legal Blog

Last week, a Tennessee man stabbed his wife and her father in their Brentwood home. The wife died from injuries, and the father-in-law sustained critical stab wounds before grabbing a gun and fatally shooting the man.

This was not the first time the man had shown violence. In 2011, he attempted to strangle his ex-wife. As a result of the incident, his ex-wife sustained injuries to the neck and a broken arm. According to news reports, he pleaded guilty to domestic violence. He served one year under supervised probation and attended a court mandated program for domestic violence abusers. The two later divorced in 2014.

Despite shifting attitudes and laws across the country, marijuana is still illegal in Tennessee and at the federal level. This means that anyone accused of having, using or selling marijuana can face arrest and conviction.

That said, marijuana laws are changing more frequently now and safety officials argue that law enforcement tools and training are not keeping up with these changes. One area in particular that they want to address is creating standards for testing for drug-impaired driving.

Most people who drink alcohol have been to a party or other social gathering where one or more people drank a little too much and drove home. Many may have even been the person who drank too much at the party and drove home, although hopefully they made it to their destination without incident. Unfortunately, when a person who drinks and drives at a social gathering does experience an accident, the host of the party may face some liability for the results of that accident.

Tennessee, like many other states, observes social host liability, especially when it comes to serving alcohol to minors. If a minor drinks at a social gathering and then gets into an accident, authorities pay special attention to where the minor obtained the alcohol and whether the person who supplied the alcohol had any knowledge of the minor drinking.

Stop and think about what you were like in middle school or high school. Think about all the mistakes you made and silly things you might have thought were the most important things in the world. You could be quite happy to have put that time behind you and relieved that any decisions you made back then stayed in the past.

However, this isn't how it is for everyone. Teenagers charged with crimes like underage drinking or minor drug offenses can experience serious penalties that follow them for years. Below, we examine some of the consequences teens might suffer for a criminal conviction.