State v. Allen, No. W2017-01118- SC-R11-CD (Tenn. 2020)
Nature of Case: Appellant had been convicted in Florida of a sex offense, and subsequently moved to Tennessee and was then indicted for failure to comply with Tennessee law related to registration of sex offenders. Appellant successfully dismissed the Indictments and the state did not appeal. Several years later, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation filed a motion seeking to void the court’s order on the grounds that they were without jurisdiction to do so. The court agreed, and Appellant sought review.
Holding: Tennessee Supreme Court held that Appellant had the right to seek review under these circumstances, and that the trial court erred in granting the TBI’s motion as it was without jurisdiction to modify the original order granting the dismissal.
Appellant further raised several constitutional challenges to Tennessee’s registration laws which the Court did not directly address as they were raised for the first time on appeal, though did observe that several of the arguments appeared to have merit with respect to the lack of apparent Due Process protections.