Nesha Newsome v. State of Tennessee

The Petitioner, Nesha Newsome¹, filed in the Shelby County Criminal Court a petition for post-conviction relief from her convictions for especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and robbery. The Petitioner contended that her trial counsel were ineffective by failing to object to the trial court’s definition of “aiding” in response to the jury’s question regarding the criminal responsibility jury instruction, failing to argue that her convictions violated due process, and failing to have the Petitioner undergo a pretrial mental evaluation. The post-conviction court denied the petition, and the Petitioner now appeals. In addition to the foregoing issues, the Petitioner also asserts that the supreme court’s denial of funding for a forensic psychologist violated her federal and state due process rights. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.