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Nashville defense attorneys have taken the extraordinary step of challenging the competency of longtime Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn. Nearly three years after the judge suffered a stroke at the courthouse, the legal filings bring into partial public view what had increasingly been the subject of hushed courthouse chatter.
The Banner has learned of multiple motions related to Blackburn’s capacity that have been filed under seal. However, one motion filed publicly in a felony assault case on Wednesday shed some light on the doubts being raised about her ability to oversee serious criminal cases.
Nashville defense attorney Kevin Kelly filed the motion seeking a postponement of his client’s trial so that he could research his client’s “constitutional rights to have this trial heard by a Judge who is competent to rule on issues related to this trial.” Kelly goes on to cite “this Honorable Court’s recent recusal and transfer in an unrelated case that was granted in response to a motion calling the Court’s competency into question.”
Kelly told the Banner he couldn’t comment on the matter beyond saying that he has an obligation to advocate for his client. A hearing on his motion has not yet been scheduled.
Kelly is not alone in preferring to stay quiet on the matter. Other defense attorneys reached by the Banner declined to comment on motions they’ve filed or Blackburn’s competency in general, with one citing ongoing cases in her courtroom.
Former Public Defender Dawn Deaner said that motions to remove a judge are not made lightly and involve significant risk to attorneys and the people they represent.
“There is this underlying concern as a lawyer that if you file a motion that a judge might find offensive, that they will take it out on you, the lawyer, or they will take it out on your clients, or they will take it out on your future clients,” she said.
In Deaner's view, some judges are very much seen as “kings and queens” of their courtroom.
“And it’s kind of like the old saying, ‘If you come at the king, you better not miss.’”
Blackburn got her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969 and has been on the bench in Nashville since 1996. She has spoken publicly about the stroke she suffered while working in May of 2021, highlighting the quick action taken by Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton.
“Instead of coming into my office, I went to Angie’s office to ask her a question,” Blackburn told Tennessee Courts in February 2022. “I had my mask on at the time and she looked up at me and told me to take my mask off. She saw my eye and the side of my face not doing well. She called her secretary to get the paramedics here. By then, I had no ability to use my arm.”
She had surgery to remove a blood clot from her brain and returned to work quickly.
“They said it went perfectly,” Blackburn said. “I didn’t go back on the bench until two weeks, but was back in the office in one week. I had no side effects.”
Questions about when Blackburn would retire have been circulating for at least a year. Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D - Nashville) said in February last year, he received a call to prepare a House resolution honoring her. Clemmons told the Banner he prepared and filed HJR0352, but withdrew it when Blackburn said she was not retiring. Clemmons said he did not recall who asked his office for the resolution.
From the bench in courtroom 6C Thursday morning, Blackburn oversaw a plea in a murder case. She questioned the defendant to determine whether he understood the proceedings and was pleading guilty — to second degree murder and a 20-year sentence — knowingly and voluntarily. After accepting his plea, she moved on to other court business, discussing with court officers and attorneys what was next on the day’s docket.
Soon, the question of her own fitness to sit on the bench will be among those matters.
The preamble to Tennessee’s Code of Judicial Conduct states that judges “should aspire at all times to conduct that ensures the greatest possible public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity, and competence.” The last time the public rendered a judgment on Blackburn, in a vote the year after her stroke, they re-elected her to a third eight-year term.
Among at least some of the attorneys who regularly appear before her, however, confidence has run out.