The Tennessee Supreme Court is hearing oral argument this week in State v. Gibson. In Gibson the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s imposition of the Drug Free School Zone enhancement when the Defendant was convicted for facilitation of a felony cocaine charge.
Facilitation is a lesser included offense of the charged crime. The Defendant’s lawyers are arguing on appeal that the enhancements should not apply to the lesser included offense, but rather, only to the charged offense of possession of more than .5 grams of cocaine.
The Court of Appeals has previously held that “attempt,” also a lesser included offense, does warrant application of the Drug Free School Zone enhancement. Therefore, the Supreme Court’s decision would likely affect how lawyers and courts handled attempt convictions under the School Zone statute as well.
The Court of Appeals case can be found at State v. Gibson.