Former Tennessee players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams, both charged with aggravated rape, had their pretrial appeal approved by an appellate court on Monday, delaying their trials.
According to Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel, the hold was based on the unsettled issue over access to social media accounts of witnesses in criminal cases.
Thus, a panel of three judges for the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals granted an interlocutory appeal to get some direction as to how the defense can legally go about obtaining communications via social media and Internet messaging services.
Johnson and Williams’ attorneys believe that proving the former Vols’ innocence could very well be done by knowing what the accuser and the three witnesses, all female friends, said in texts on Facebook, Snapchat, Yik Yak and other similar services.
However, those social media providers are not willing to submit any of their customers’ postings.
According to the report, no decision is anticipated for months, but it will likely be groundbreaking in terms of shaping new laws surrounding a defense’s access to witnesses’ digital communication when police decide not to preserve it.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
