Wouldn’t that be your first motion on such a criminal defense, Counselor? Tactics are also a part of criminal defense, as I was frequently reminded during my 25 years behind the badge. If a defense attorney was able to get a charge tossed at a Probable Cause hearing (because the PC didn’t match the law), then I was back to Square One in my investigation, but if that same attorney decided to go the Constitutional Challenge route, his client usually rotted in jail for years until the case finally hit the Court of Appeals (on a serious felony, of course).

Had I continued with the Pre-Law studies I started at the Mizzou “Law Barn”, I would have probably been a defense counsel. To me, their work is the most fascinating of all the branches of law.

And unfortunately, I have to disagree with the assertion that the courts will fix it, especially in Tennessee, where the court of appeals tends to interpret statutes quite literally and aren’t terribly activist, in either good or bad ways.

That being said, as soon as I get a client charged under this particular provision, I’ll be the first one challenging its constitutionality.

The first such case to come before your Superior Court will probably be tossed on motion of the defense attorney, or definitely when it hits your Court of Appeals, because the law is a back-door way of removing a civil right (the right to an affirmative defense is an absolute right), and the courts aren’t supposed to allow these back doors to exist.