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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE
Assigned on Briefs July 25, 2000 JACK P. CARR v. DAVID MILLS, WARDEN
Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Morgan County No. 8629 E. Eugene Eblen, Judge

No. E2000-00156-CCA-R3-PC October 13, 2000 The petitioner sought writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was entitled to relief because the judgments of conviction were not signed by the trial judge. We hold unsigned judgments do not render judgments void, such as entitles a defendant to habeas corpus relief. We affirm the trial court's dismissal. Tenn. R. App. P. 3, Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Criminal Court Affirmed JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS , J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JOSEPH M. TIPTON and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER , JJ., joined. Joe H. Walker, District Public Defender, and Walter B. Johnson, II, Harriman, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jack P. Carr. Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; R. Stephen Jobe, Assistant Attorney General; J. Scott McCluen, District Attorney General, and Frank Harvey, Assistant District Attorney, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION Facts The petitioner, Jack P. Carr, was convicted by a Hamilton County jury in November 1985 of aggravated child abuse, assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter, and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. The Hamilton County Criminal Court sentenced the petitioner to twenty years for each count of aggravated sexual battery and three years each for the assault and child abuse counts. The sentences were to run consecutively for an effective term of forty-six years imprisonment. This Court affirmed the petitioner's sentence on direct appeal and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied permission to appeal on February 9, 1987. State v. Carr, No. 975, 1986 WL

12496 (Tenn. Crim. App. Nov. 6, 1986) perm. app. denied, Feb. 9, 1987. After numerous other appeals, the petitioner, on October 15, 1999, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Morgan County Criminal Court. The petitioner asserted in his petition that his conviction judgments were void for lack of a judge's signature. In support of this position, the petitioner attached what he purported to be judgments for each of his convictions. However, these documents appear to be mittimuses instructing the sheriff or jailer as to the petitioner's sentence. On December 20, 1999, the Morgan County Criminal Court dismissed the petition for failure to establish a basis for habeas relief. The petitioner's appeal is timely before this Court and the petitioner asserts that the trial court erred in holding that he failed to meet his burden of proof that the judgment documents were not signed by the judge.

Analysis Article I,

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