Prosecutor Not Required

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Criminal Procedure
  4. Indictments
  5. General Provisions
  6. Prosecutor Not Required

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A prosecutor is dispensed with and the district attorney general may file bills of indictment, officially, and without a prosecutor marked on the bill of indictment, in the following cases:

  1. Upon a presentment;
  2. Upon an inquest of willful homicide or murder;
  3. Upon a recognizance to answer for a breach of the peace, or other inferior offense, committed in the presence of and taken notice of by any judge from the judge's own view;
  4. Upon a charge of gaming;
  5. Upon a charge of drawing a lottery or vending lottery tickets;
  6. Upon a charge of keeping a billiard table without a license;
  7. Upon a charge of violation of graves;
  8. Upon a charge against a county legislative body or a county mayor for failing to provide safe prisons;
  9. Upon an order of the circuit or criminal court to file an indictment, officially, which may be made when it appears to the court that an indictable offense has been committed, and that no one will be prosecutor;
  10. Upon information made to the district attorney general by a judge of the court of general sessions, upon the judge's own knowledge, of an indictable offense, committed during the sitting of the court;
  11. Upon a report of the clerk of the chancery court that an executor, administrator or guardian has neglected or refused for thirty (30) days after a subpoena has been served to appear before the clerk and settle the accounts;
  12. Upon a charge of violating the laws to suppress the use, importation or sale of prohibited weapons;
  13. Upon a charge of violating the laws against illegal voting, and to preserve the purity of elections;
  14. Against the clerk of any court who knowingly and willfully, with intent and purpose to affect the result of a case depending or decided in the clerk's court, makes a false entry, fails to make an entry directed by law or makes an imperfect transcript of the proceedings had in the clerk's court, and being in the clerk's office;
  15. Upon a charge of violating the laws pertaining to intoxicating liquors;
  16. Upon a charge of violating the laws to suppress private banking;
  17. Upon a charge of cutting, writing upon, defacing, disfiguring or damaging public buildings;
  18. Upon a charge against a clerk of converting to the clerk's own use, investing, using or lending money, property or effects in the clerk's custody, to be paid or delivered, according to law or order of court, to any party, witness, officer or other person;
  19. Upon an indictment for sedition, conspiracies and riots;
  20. Upon an indictment for disturbing or obstructing a public officer in the discharge of the officer's official duties;
  21. Upon a charge for violating the game and fish laws;
  22. Upon an indictment against a sheriff for permitting a prisoner in the sheriff's custody to be put to death by violence;
  23. Upon a charge of trespass upon lands or injury to or removal of property in violation of § 39-14-408;
  24. Upon a charge of child abuse in violation of § 39-15-401 or any other offense against the person in which a child is the victim; and
  25. Any other cases provided by law.

Code 1858, § 5097 (deriv. Acts 1803, ch. 59; 1817, ch. 61, § 4; 1820, ch. 4, § 2; 1820, ch. 13, § 2; 1822, ch. 40, § 13; 1824, ch. 5, § 5; 1827, ch. 85, § 3; 1829, ch. 101, § 5; 1831, ch. 81, § 2; 1835-1836, ch. 47, § 5; 1837-1838, ch. 26, § 1; 1837-1838, ch. 125, § 3; 1837-1838, ch. 137, § 5; 1841-1842, ch. 31, § 14; 1841-1842, ch. 65; 1841-1842, ch. 129, § 4; 1847-1848, ch. 45, § 4; 1847-1848, ch. 124, §§ 1, 2; 1851-1852, ch. 167, § 2); Acts 1865, ch. 15, § 2; 1873, ch. 104, § 2; 1881, ch. 45, § 2; 1883, ch. 251, § 4; 1903, ch. 444, § 2; Shan., §§ 3169, 6503a4, 7059; mod. Code 1932, §§ 7822, 10837, 11603; modified; Acts 1968, ch. 563, §§ 1, 2; impl. am. Acts 1973, ch. 81, §§ 2, 6; 1977, ch. 482, § 13; impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 846, § 3; impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 934, §§ 7, 36; impl. am. Acts 1979, ch. 68, § 3; impl. am. Acts 1980, ch. 875, § 2; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 40-1705; Acts 1996, ch. 675, §§ 23-25; 2003, ch. 90, § 2.

Compiler's Notes. Acts 2003, ch. 90, § 2, directed the code commission to change all references from “county executive” to “county mayor” and to include all such changes in supplements and replacement volumes for the Tennessee Code Annotated.

Cross-References. Duties of district attorney general, §8-7-103.

Vandalism, §39-14-408.

Textbooks. Tennessee Criminal Practice and Procedure (Raybin), § 9.20.


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