State of Tennessee v. Tony v. Carruthers & James Montgomery

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Tony Carruthers' three first-degree murder convictions and death sentences, holding that he implicitly waived and forfeited his constitutional right to counsel by repeatedly threatening and driving away successive appointed attorneys to delay his capital trial, and rejecting his challenges to the indictments, the admission of co-conspirator statements, and the sufficiency of the evidence. The Court reversed James Montgomery's convictions and sentences because the denial of his severance request subjected him to unfair prejudice from Carruthers' self-representation — particularly Carruthers' elicitation of incriminating testimony, including Alfredo Shaw's account of the killings — making severance a judicial duty. The Court also confirmed that co-conspirator statements made on the night of the murders were admissible while Jonathan Montgomery's later narrative statements were inadmissible but harmless. Justice Birch, concurring in part and dissenting in part, agreed with both outcomes but renewed his position that Tennessee's comparative proportionality review protocol is inadequate.