My First Parole Hearing: State of Tennessee v. [Uncle] John Paul Sexton

I hadn't been licensed long at all when my grandmother called and asked me to represent my uncle, her fifth born child, in his upcoming parole hearing at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. I prepped my witnesses (my mother and grandmother) and off we went. I knew enough then to quiz my uncle Johnny about his remorse, penitence. He was in prison for murdering Cotton Headrick outside of a beer joint in Roane County some years earlier. I cannot recall how long he had been in prison, but it couldn't havde been any more than about ten years at that time.