An interesting article was in the Tennessean yesterday. Previously, criminal attorneys in Nashville were told calls between clients and attorneys from prisons in Davidson County were not recorded. This was the policy of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office. The calls are often still monitored (checking for illegal activity) but many times important issues were discussed over the phone in order to save the client, or in the case of appointed attorneys, the state of Tennessee the additional costs of the attorney having to go down to the jail every time something comes up.
However, per the Tennessean article, "the Davidson County Sheriff's Office gave hundreds of recorded phone calls between inmates and their attorneys to federal prosecutors, who shared the recordings with dozens of lawyers representing defendants in a sex-trafficking case." The CDs with the information included not just attorney-client communications from those charged in the sex-trafficking case, but also multiple other attorney-client phone calls from other. non-related federal cases. U.S. District Court Judge William J. Haynes Jr. will rule on the matter as some of the defense attorneys are hesitant to return the CDs containing the recorded conversations because the information on the CDs may help their clients.
It will be interesting to see how Judge Haynes rules. If he decides the information is privileged, the CD's should be returned. If he rules the information is not privileged since it was from a jail phone, then attorneys will have to change their policies regarding communications with their clients which will greatly increase costs to clients and the State.
You can read the full article here.
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