Preview:

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT JACKSON MARCH 1997 SESSION

FILED
December 4, 1997 Cecil Crowson, Jr.
Appellate C ourt Clerk

WILLIE DEMORRIS LOCUST, Appellant, vs. STATE OF TENNESSEE, Appellee.

) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

C.C.A. No. 02C01-9611-CC-00392 Dyer County Hon. Joe G. Riley, Judge (Post Conviction)

FOR THE APPELLANT: LANCE WEBB Attorney at Law P.O. Box 26 Union City, TN 38261

FOR THE APPELLEE: JOHN KNOX WALKUP Attorney General & Reporter LISA A. NAYLOR Assistant Attorney General Criminal Justice Division 450 James Robertson Parkway Nashville, TN 37243-0493 C. PHILLIP BIVENS District Attorney General KAREN WINCHESTER Asst. District Attorney General P.O. Drawer E Dyersburg, TN 38024

OPINION FILED: ____________________

AFFIRMED

CURWOOD WITT JUDGE

OPINION The petitioner, Willie Demorris Locust, appeals the Dyer County Circuit Court's denial of his petition for post conviction relief. Locust is incarcerated in the Department of Correction for his convictions of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated burglary, for which he received an effective ten year sentence that he is serving consecutively to a twenty year sentence for aggravated rape and aggravated burglary and an assault sentence of undisclosed length. See State v. Locust, 914 S.W.2d 554 (Tenn. Crim. App.) (aggravated sexual battery and aggravated burglary), perm. app. denied (Tenn. 1995); State v. Willie Demorris Locust, No. 02-C-01-9404-CC-00075 (Tenn. Crim. App., Jackson, Oct. 5, 1994) (aggravated rape and aggravated burglary), perm. app. denied (Tenn. 1995). In this appeal, he claims the lower court erred in denying him relief on three issues: 1. Whether the indictment is defective and his conviction of aggravated sexual battery is therefore void. Whether the trial judge failed to instruct the jury on lesser included offenses, thereby depriving him of his constitutional right to a trial by jury. Whether he was afforded the effective assistance of counsel at his trial and on direct appeal.

2.

3.

Following a review of the record, we affirm the lower court's dismissal of Locust's petition.

Locust's petition was filed on February 1, 1996. As such, the Post Conviction Act of 1995 controls. Accordingly, Locust has the burden of establishing by clear and convincing evidence that he is entitled to post-conviction relief. Tenn. Code Ann.

Download locustwd.pdf

Tennessee Law