As goes California, so goes Tennessee?

[Posted by Ron Wright]

The Cunningham case settled the applicability of Blakely to the largest "hold-out" state, California. Another remaining hold-out jurisdiction, Tennessee, is set to be resolved any time now. In State v. Gomez, the Tennessee Supreme Court held that the Tennessee “presumptive” sentencing scheme was valid because the judge retained the discretion to sentence anywhere within the range. (Background here.) Cunningham rejected that notion and so it seems inevitable that Tennessee will join California soon in Blakely land.

The ever-alert David Raybin, an attorney in Nashville who is involved in this litigation, sends in the following update:

Whatever will happen will happen soon. Gomez (05-296 ) was scheduled for conference on February 16. My own companion case State v. Guartos (06-6790) was just set for conference also on February 16. So  the worm has turned  and we should see something perhaps as early as Tuesday…. Most of us think Gomez will just be remanded but who knows what SCOTUS may do to the Tennessee Supreme Court’s “plain error” ruling.