The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear arguments from a Memphis man convicted of murder who believes he deserves a new trial because his original trial lawyers were ineffective.
In a rare move, the state Supreme Court granted an appeal from Tommie Phillips last week. The man was convicted of murder, rape, kidnapping, burglary, and sexual battery in a case tied to one event in December 2008.
Phillips has appealed his 2011 conviction from the Shelby County Criminal Court several times. The state Supreme Court denied an appeal from Phillips in 2014. Most recently, his appeal was denied by the state Court of Criminal Appeals in February.
Phillips has argued his public defenders failed to adequately present his case in court with a litany of complaints, noting generally that his defense team had no trial strategy. His central complaint, however, is that his lawyers failed to suppress a statement he made to police.
Phillips believes allowing the statement in court helped seal his conviction. The appeals court ruling in February disagreed. Even if the statement had been thrown out, “he still cannot show that the result of his trial would have been different given the overwhelming proof of his guilt.”
In approving Phillips’ appeal, Tennessee Supreme Court justices said they are “particularly interested” hearing his arguments about the case, especially as to whether the statement should have been suppressed. The case was set for oral arguments, though no schedule was given.
The 2008 crime
In 2008, Phillips arrived at a home looking for an acquaintance who, Phillips said, owed him money. The acquaintance’s mother shared the home with her 85-year-old mother.
Court records say Phillips forced the woman to take the elderly woman to her bedroom and bind her feet and hands with shoelaces. He then forced the woman to disrobe and get into a bathtub. He bound her feet and hands, sexually assaulted her, sliced at her throat and stabbed her in the chest.
“[Phillips] stepped out of the bathtub, smiled at her, and went back into her bedroom,” court records say. “He returned with her bathrobe and said, ‘Pack it down, you’ll live.’
“He told her that if her son arrived in fifteen minutes, he could call the paramedics to save her. He said, ‘I do this all the time,’ then smiled and left the bathroom.”
Phillips’ acquaintance arrived home and the men struggled. The mother broke free from her bindings, attempted to call for help, and attacked Phillips with a hammer.
Once he left, they found the 85-year-old grandmother dead in a bathroom. Court records said she was apparently strangled, found with a “blue bandana wrapped tightly around her neck.” In the police car with his mother much later, Phillips told her that the elderly woman ”was having a heart attack and he put a pillow under her head.”
