Unsealed documents reveal concerns over former judge's fitness to serve on bench
The competency of retired Tennessee Judge Cheryl Blackburn had been questioned following a stroke that she had in 2021, and yet she remained on the bench, according to court documents unsealed earlier this month. (Photo from the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts)
Updated: The competency of a retired Tennessee judge had been questioned following a stroke that she had in 2021, and yet she remained on the bench, according to court documents unsealed earlier this month.
Former Judge Cheryl Blackburn was accused in the documents of struggling with basic judicial duties and being unable to competently execute them. Blackburn was a judge in the Davidson County Criminal Court in Tennessee for nearly three decades.
The previously sealed motion to disqualify her from a 2024 rape trial was written by defense attorneys Bernie McEvoy and Melanie Bean. The lawyers cited the judge’s “apparent cognitive impairment” and said she appeared confused and irritable on the bench.
She is accused in the documents of having difficulty reading jury instructions and mispronouncing words. The lawyers also said court staff limited courtroom access to keep the public and media from observing her “mental deficits.”
Blackburn retired in May 2025, and she is in her late 70s, according to the Nashville Banner.
Julius Sloss, the chief deputy clerk for the Davidson County Criminal Court, declined to comment on the accusations pertaining to the judge.
Aliza Shatzman is the president and founder of the Legal Accountability Project, a nationwide court accountability nonprofit.
The “situation regarding Judge Blackburn, while deeply troubling, is not unusual at all,” says Shatzman, a 2026 ABA Journal Legal Rebel.
Judges “often do not recognize their own fallibility, risking serious harm to litigants, lawyers, judicial staff and the public and further eroding the already shaky public trust and confidence in the courts,” Shatzman says.
“State judicial discipline systems need better processes in place to ensure accountability and transparency and to make it easier for staff or anyone else concerned about a judge’s fitness to safely report that information without fear of retaliation, retribution or reputational harm,” Shatzman says.
The Nashville Banner previously reported on questions involving Blackburn’s competency.
Updated June 23 at 1:37 p.m. to report that Julius Sloss, the chief deputy clerk for the Davidson County Criminal Court, declined to comment.
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