Jesse S. Tidwell, Appellant v. State of Tennessee, Appellee

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance under Baxter v. Rose and Strickland v. Washington by failing to ask the trial court to require the prosecutor to elect the specific offenses underlying each of the forty-two convictions, because the undifferentiated monthly counts placed the constitutional guarantee of jury unanimity at serious risk. Applying Strickland's prejudice prong incident-by-incident, the court found prejudice requiring reversal for the eleven monthly incidents supported only by nonspecific testimony, but affirmed the convictions for the three incidents (December 1985, April 1986, and January 1987) that the victim described with particularity. The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals was reversed in part and affirmed in part, and the cause was remanded for trial or other disposition on the remaining counts.