Frederick Demetrius DeBerry v. State of Tennessee

A Fayette County jury convicted the Petitioner, Frederick Demetrius Deberry, of aggravated rape, and the trial court imposed a twenty-year sentence to be served consecutively to a federal sentence. The Petitioner thereafter filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus, asserting that his conviction and sentence were void for the following reasons: (1) the trial court improperly overruled his objections to the State’s peremptory strikes of Black jurors; (2) the trial court improperly admitted hearsay testimony; (3) trial and appellate counsel rendered ineffective assistance; (4) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction; (5) the court unlawfully enhanced his sentence and ordered it to run consecutively to his federal sentence; and (6) the post-conviction court erred by dismissing his earlier petition without a hearing. The habeas corpus court summarily dismissed the application, concluding that the alleged claims, even if true, would render the challenged judgment voidable rather than void. The Petitioner now appeals. Upon our review, we respectfully affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court