Tennessee Supreme Court

State of Tennessee v. Fred Chad Clark, Ii

November 10, 20142014 Tenn. LEXIS 913

Summary

The Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions because his daughters’ testimony sufficiently corroborated his recorded admissions, the admissions were voluntary and did not implicate the Fifth Amendment, and any error in admitting adult-pornography evidence was harmless. The Court also held that the rape-of-a-child instructions correctly permitted conviction based on intentional, knowing, or reckless conduct, while any ambiguity in the aggravated-sexual-battery instructions was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The Court recognized that the pornography evidence was improperly admitted and that the aggravated-sexual-battery instructions should have been more precise, but neither error warranted reversal.

Holding

  • Corroboration and sufficiency of the evidence. The daughters’ testimony provided sufficient independent corroboration of the defendant’s confessions under Tennessee’s modified trustworthiness standard, and the evidence was sufficient to support the five convictions upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
  • Admissibility and voluntariness of the recorded confessions. The recorded conversations were admissible because the defendant’s statements to his wife were voluntary, and the Fifth Amendment self-incrimination protection was not triggered merely because his wife cooperated with police in eliciting the statements.
  • Admission of adult-pornography evidence. The trial court erred by admitting evidence of the defendant’s adult-pornography use during the State’s case-in-chief and by instructing the jury that it could use the evidence to evaluate credibility, but the errors were harmless.
  • Mental-state jury instructions. The rape-of-a-child instructions properly permitted the jury to find intentional, knowing, or reckless conduct as to both the sexual penetration and the victim’s age. Although the aggravated-sexual-battery instruction was potentially ambiguous because it placed the three mental states after the elements, any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the undisputed evidence showed intentional touching for sexual arousal or gratification.

Docket M2010-00570-SC-R11-CD

Cited authorities

  • Tenn. R.App. P. 11
  • Tenn. R.App. P. 11
  • Tenn. R.App. P. 13(e)
  • Tenn. R. Evid. 801
  • Tenn. R.App. P. 11
  • Tenn. R.App. P. 11
  • Tenn. R.App. P. 11
  • Tenn. R. Evid. 404(b)

Cited by

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