New public safety laws to take effect on July 1 in Tennessee

The new sentencing act requires felons convicted of eight different offenses to serve 100% of their sentences undiminished by any sentence reduction credits for which the person is eligible or earns.

Those eight offenses are attempted first-degree murder, second-degree murder, vehicular homicide, especially aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated robbery, carjacking, and especially aggravated burglary.

The law also identifies another 16 offenses that require 100% of the sentence to be served unless the inmate earns a satisfactory program performance. In such cases, an inmate can receive credits for a GED or job training that can be used for parole eligibility once a person has served a minimum of 85% of their sentence.

Tennessee legislators also passed a related law that requires victims and their families to be better informed about how much time an offender will serve at the time of sentencing.

It requires all Tennessee courts to place on the record the estimated number of years and months to be served before a criminal is eligible for parole, as well as the reason for the sentence and enhancements.

Other new public safety laws

set to go into effect July 1 include:

• A measure that strengthens penalties for emotional and mental abuse or neglect of children at an unlicensed child care facility. It addresses an incident in East Tennessee, when 23 children were found restrained at an unlicensed child care facility.

The new law enhances the penalty to a Class E felony for any person operating an unlicensed child care facility and found guilty of abuse, neglect or endangerment of a child.

• The Joe Clyde Act that makes it harder for convicted murderers to be granted parole if they do not disclose the location of their victim’s remains.

• An act that increases penalties for boating under the influence. Dubbed “Nicholas’s Law,” it makes a boating under the influence conviction equal to that of driving under the influence for the purpose of determining whether the offender is a repeat offender.

• A measure to crack down on defendants who are convicted of trafficking children. Under the new law a trafficker will be charged with a Class A felony if the victim is under the age of 18. It also creates a Class A felony offense of aggravated trafficking for a commercial sex act, and requires those convicted to serve 100% of any sentence imposed.

• An act that requires individuals who have been convicted of first-degree murder, the perpetration or attempted perpetration of rape, rape of a child and aggravated rape of a child to be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

It is related to another act that sets new offenses for heinous crimes. As such, this new law creates offenses for especially aggravated rape, especially aggravated rape of a child and grave torture. The crimes are punishable by the death penalty or imprisonment for life without the possibility for parole.

• A measure that expands the definition of unlawful photography to include photographs taken without consent of the victim that focus on the unclothed intimate area of an individual and that were taken for the purpose of embarrassing or harassing the victim, among other criteria.

• An act to increase the penalties for the illegal dumping of tires. It makes knowingly dumping two or more tires on public or private property without permission a Class A misdemeanor offense of aggravated littering and also adds a Class E felony offense for a first-time conviction when dumping eight or more tires for commercial purposes.