State of Tennessee v. Donald Ray Smith

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that a witness's prior inconsistent statements, though inadmissible as substantive hearsay when properly objected to, may be considered by the jury as substantive evidence where the defendant fails to object to their admission or to request a limiting instruction. Applying that rule, the court found that the twelve-year-old victim's prior statements sufficiently corroborated Donald Ray Smith's tape-recorded and written confessions to establish the corpus delicti and prove aggravated sexual battery beyond a reasonable doubt. The court formally adopted the five-factor Adkisson test for plain error and held that trial counsel's deliberate, tactical decision to forgo objection barred plain-error relief for the missing limiting instruction. It therefore reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstated the conviction and eight-year sentence.