State v. Jenkins (1999)

In State v. Jenkins, 15 S.W.3d 914, 1999 WL 981235 (Tenn. Crim. App. at Nashville, 1999), the Court rejected an argument that the Drug-Free School Zone Act is unconstitutionally vague "in a general sense," because "a person of reasonable intelligence could not determine how to measure the distance between the transaction locale and the school property . . . ." The Court concluded that the method of measurement was clearly and unambiguously set forth in the statute. Id. The Court did concede that, notwithstanding the statute's clear and unambiguous language, "a pedestrian would face some difficulty in measuring a location at least 1,001 feet from a school's property." Id. Significantly, however, for purposes of assessing the application of the Act in the appellant's case, the Court concluded that this difficulty does not constitute a due process violation. Id.