State of Tennessee v. Carlos E. Bryan

This is yet another case in which the parties have been ensnared in the procedural pitfalls of a certified question of law. Defendant entered a negotiated plea of guilty to possession of over seventy pounds of marijuana with intent to sell or deliver with an agreed sentence of eight years. He attempted to reserve a certified question of law pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 37(b)(2)(iv), "with the consent of the court," relating to the search and seizure of the contraband. Because the defendant entered a negotiated plea of guilty and neither the judgment nor the order of the court reflects the state's consent to the certified question, we must dismiss the appeal.