Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom - Appeals and Retrials

Appeals and Retrials

The defendants in the state cases (excluding Eric Boyd, who was convicted at the federal level) all appealed their convictions. During this time, the sentencing judge, Richard Baumgartner, one of Knox County's three Criminal Court judges, was forced to resign from the bench in March 2011 after admitting he had a drug addiction and had been having sex and purchasing pills during breaks in court sessions, thus impairing his ability to conduct trials during his final two years on the bench and compromising all trials he held during this time, including the initial trials reviewed above. Baumgartner has since been disbarred and is under federal investigation. On December 1, 2011, seven weeks after Baumgartner's disbarment became final, Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood granted new trials to all four state defendants after a TBI investigation outlined evidence that Baumgartner was likely impaired while presiding over those trials (other criminal cases heard during the time period were also overturned for retrial). Jurors expressed dissatisfaction with the decision, noting that they, not Baumgartner, who favored the defense during the trial, convicted the killers.

Blackwood tentatively set retrials for between June and November 2012, pending state appeals of the decisions, and set bail at $1 million USD for Coleman, the only defendant who did not receive a sentence with no chance of parole. Separately, Blackwood denied a change of venue, but did allow for potential jurors to be brought in from outside of Knox County. Because of double jeopardy, the defendants will only face the sentences they already received at maximum; as such, only Davidson can face capital punishment. The decision to hold retrials for Cobbins, Davidson, and Thomas (the decision to retry Coleman was not appealed) was affirmed in a split decision by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on April 13. In May of 2012, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned Blackwood's ruling ordering new trials for Cobbins, Davidson, and Thomas, commenting that its "order should not be construed as condoning or excusing" Baumgartner's misconduct.

In June 2012, a prosecutors filed to have Judge Blackwood recused from the case after he invoked the "13th juror rule" to reverse himself and decline to grant new trials for Cobbins and Davidson (the motion for recusal also applies to Thomas' case, although he is still set to have a retrial). The motion cites Blackwood's emotional involvement in the case as potentially interfering with a fair trial. Following Blackwood's recusal, Senior Judge Walter Kurtz was named to oversee the retrials, which have not yet occurred as of December 2012.