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Tennessee Carjack Slaying Case: Grand Jury Witness Immunity

By Baker Associates

On May 14, 2009, before Judge Baumgartner, defense counsel for Vanessa Colemen in the now-infamous carjack slaying case argued that Tennessee homicide charges against his client should be dropped because Ms. Coleman testified before a grand jury on issues related to the charges now levied against her. According to Tennessee Criminal Law and Rules of Criminal Procedure, if a witness is called before a grand jury and the witness decides not to incriminate herself, the district attorney may compel the witness to answer by granting the witness immunity from prosecution. The problem with Coleman?s case, however, is that while her recently retired defense attorney applied for the immunity, Ms. Coleman never followed through with the application...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).