Jonathan Stephenson: On the Execution of Due Process in TN

Jonathan Stephenson: On the Execution of Due Process in TN

Surely, there should be a conviction in order to place a conviction on someone’s record, right?  Obviously, not in Tennessee.  The story of Jonathan Stephenson is one of the stranger legal tales I have encountered.  Due to a wild series of twists and turns, Tennessee is trying to execute someone who literally doesn’t have a legal conviction on their record.  This is not about the ins and outs of the case.  This is about a legal process that has inexplicably left Stephenson devoid of any semblance of due process and sentenced to death without a legitimate underlying legal conviction.

This is how it happened…

Jonathan Stephenson was convicted (by a jury) of first-degree murder and conspiracy

to commit first-degree murder in 1990. The Jury imposed a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction and the trial court imposed a consecutive sentence of twenty-five (25) years for the conspiracy conviction. On direct appeal, the court affirmed both convictions, but remanded both of them for resentencing due to a fundamental error which occurred in the sentencing phase of trial. The error rendered the jury’s verdict a nullity. On remand, the parties reached an agreement, (A plea Agreement) that involved the changing of Stephenson’s pleas from not Guilty, to Guilty, which rendered the jury trial and conviction itself a nullity. The guilty plea agreement came with the sentence of life without parole, for the first-degree murder guilty plea. A sentence of sixty (60) years to be served at sixty percent (%) and run consecutive to the first-degree murder sentence for the conspiracy to commit first-degree murder guilty plea along with the promise of never being faced with the Death Sentence again. In 1998, Stephenson, filed a Petition for State Habeas Corpus Relief. Stephenson alleged that his sentence of life without parole for his conviction of first-degree murder was illegal and void, because that particular sentence did not exist at the time the crime was committed. The Supreme Court of Tennessee agreed with Stephenson and on September 21, 2000, granted Stephenson’s petition for Habeas Corpus Relief. There is no dispute the Tennessee Supreme Court had knowledge of the Plea Agreement in this case and was aware enough to assert Stephenson’s separate conviction and sentence for Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder was not illegal nor void. A Mandate was issued to the Johnson County Circuit Court, to reinvest jurisdiction back to the “trial” court, (or in this case, the place where the habeas petition originated), and ordered the Circuit Court of Johnson County to carry out the Order of the Supreme Court. On the 5th day of December 2000, the Circuit Court of Johnson County, located at Mountain City Tennessee, issued its Final Judgment without an order of remand or transfer. The Department of Corrections correctly followed the Order of the Johnson County Circuit Court and removed the Murder from Stephenson’s Record. Sentencing Sheets, showing the dismissal of Stephenson’s murder conviction and sentence. Stephenson was notified, via Tennessee Department of Corrections Summary Sheet his conviction for first-degree murder and sentence of life without parole was back on his record and in force. Stephenson contacted the Sentencing Commission of the Tennessee Department of Corrections requesting the reason the murder conviction and life without parole sentence was reactivated, when the conviction and sentence had been ordered by the Court to be removed from Stephenson’s record. The answer given to Stephenson was simply, “the D.A. calculated ‘your’ case.” Stephenson submits there should have been some kind of judgment of conviction in order to place a conviction on his record. Stephenson was then given a copy of the E-Mail, sent by then Assistant District Attorney James Dunn. In that E- Mail, (then assistant attorney – now District Attorney General James Dunn), fraudulently stated he was a DA from Johnson City. He also requested a detainer be placed upon Stephenson to hold him in custody…as he was going to resentence Stephenson for his murder conviction. It was because of this ‘E-Mail,’ the State through the Department of Corrections, placed a first-degree murder conviction on Stephenson’s record.

Do we want to live in a country where someone can be executed even though they don’t have legal conviction to back it up?  This is some scary shit.