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Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 3.5
RULE 3.5 CRIMINAL CITATION
(a) Use of Citations. The use of citations in arrests for misdemeanors shall be as otherwise provided by law.
(b) Reference to Citations. All references in these rules to citations shall be construed as meaning citations issued pursuant to law.
[Amended effective August 22, 1984; July 10, 1988.]
Prior to the original draft of these rules, the criminal citation had seen only limited use in this State. Misdemeanor traffic violations were so dealt with in T.C.A. §§59-1019 et seq. Municipal ordinance violations, not limited to automobile traffic violations, were structured for citation use under T.C.A. §§6-651 et seq. However, the 1976 session of the General Assembly passed T.C.A. §40-827, effective March 19, 1976, which provides for a broad use of such citations following arrests for misdemeanors.
Rule 3.5 takes precedence over any provisions of the aforesaid statutes which conflict with it. The rule may be used not only after an arrest, but also in lieu of an arrest. Rather than creating a separate "failure to appear" offense, as does T.C.A. §40-827, the rule provides that a violation of the agreement to appear is a contempt of court. The punishment for such a contempt is specified in T.C.A. §23-903.
Use of the criminal citation in misdemeanor cases where no danger to the public interest will result is a procedure in keeping with the expressed goal of securing simplicity in procedure and eliminating unjustified expense and delay.
Comment to 1984 Amendment
The amendment to subsection (d) adds a capias to the forms of process to arrest a person who fails to appear after being given a criminal citation.
The amendment to subsection (e) allows an affidavit of complaint to be given under oath by persons other than those specified in Rule 3. This is the only intended exception to Rule 3.
Comment to 1988 Amendment
The amendment to this rule deletes the content of the rule in light of T.C.A. Section 40-7-118. This statute provides a comprehensive treatment of citations and mandates their use in some instances. To avoid duplicating the provisions of the statute, the Commission deemed it appropriate to simply abrogate the content of this rule.