Tennessee Pattern Jury Instructions — Criminal

The TPI-Criminal Committee of the Tennessee Judicial Conference provides the following information as a service to Tennessee judges and lawyers. Please be aware that this is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice.

The Tennessee Judicial Conference's TPI Criminal Committee updated/created several instructions following West's publication of the 25th Edition of the pattern jury instructions. The AOC's memorandum (updated 2/7/2022) explains the changes and includes a "with comments and footnotes" version of the instructions which are completely new or substantially revised. A Word "without comments and footnotes" version of every new/amended instruction can be accessed through the Updates to Instructions link, which is located on the panel to the left. If the Committee changed the text of a footnote and/or comment but did not change the text of the instruction, the change(s) will be explained in the AOC's memorandum, but a copy of the instruction will not be posted under the Updates to Instructions link.

Lesser Included Offenses
Last updated by the Committee through March 2022

The TPI-Criminal Committee has received many requests from trial judges for assistance in jury charges which involve lesser included offenses, a rapidly evolving area of criminal law.  The Committee has compiled a listing of decisions applying State v. Burns, 6 S.W.3d 454 (Tenn. 1999) and Tenn. Code Ann.§40-18-110(f) and (g) (effective for offenses committed on or after 7/1/09) to lesser included offenses. This list will be periodically updated by the Committee, listing new court opinions about lesser included offenses in numerical order by the TPI number of the indicted offense.