When Tameka L. Tucker started working with the legend and titan of criminal defense appeals, David L. Moffitt, in 2022, she also started working with David Moffitt's right-hand man and legend-in-his-own-right, Chief of Legal Staff and Chief Paralegal Patrick Kinney.

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Patrick Kinney was once described by David L. Moffitt (in testimony given under oath), as possessing "a level of education and legal expertise fully equal to my own."  Patrick began honing his legal skills in the trenches 27 years ago, fighting his own case for his own freedom.  Over the course of decades, while earning a masters degree in business administration and becoming a celebrated author and published poet, Patrick also mastered the law -- and helped change it for the better.

 

His first key victory, in Kinney v Dep't of Corrections, 483 Mich 944 (2009), eventually led to Michigan's adoption of the "prisoner mailbox rule," which requires Michigan courts to consider a prisoner's court filings "filed" on the date handed to prison officials for mailing, rather than on the date received by the courts.

 

Patrick is also well known for having authored the 6500 Motion and  final appellate briefs (under Attorney Mary A. Owens) that led to the courts throwing out Juan Walker's (Juan-X's) life-without-parole sentence in People v Juan Walker, 328 Mich App 429 (2019).

 

Patrick pioneered the argument (also under Attorney Mary A. Owens) that Michigan's Constitution prohibits juvenile offenders from being sentenced to parolable life in prison, which the Michigan Supreme Court later adopted as law.  People v Stovall, 510 Mich 301 (2022); People v Kinney, 2021 Mich App LEXIS 5506 (Sep. 16, 2021); People v Kinney, 510 Mich 954 (2022).

 

And Patrick made even more law under David L. Moffitt and Tameka L. Tucker, most notably, authoring the briefs that were essential to the federal district court's granting of a new trial in Uphsaw v Stephenson, a decision upheld on appeal, where the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit cribbed language from Patrick's district court briefs, making Patrick's words into binding legal precedent that now provides a basis for relief for many people who are wrongfully convicted: "Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable."  Upshaw v Stephenson, 97 F.4th 365, 374 (CA 6, 2024).

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Besides his success in the law, Patrick has long had a reputation for honesty, truthfulness, and simply telling-it-like-it-is.  Unlike many in the legal field, Patrick is well-known for his straightforwardness.  He will tell you if you have no issues or if the issues you have are weak or unwinnable.  He will never sell you a dream.  On the other hand, he will do everything he can to discover and develop winnable legal issues in your case, and he will always fight tenaciously and tirelessly to achieve success on those issues in the courts.

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Among his many other achievements, Patrick was named Best Paralegal of 2022 for “[h]is exemplary brief writing, his impeccable knowledge of the law, . . . his overall confident demeanor . . . and the legal brilliance he brings to the table . . ."

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Patrick now puts that legal brilliance to work for the clients of TLT Law, PLLC, where he labors tirelessly, alongside Tameka L. Tucker, to bring justice to the wrongly convicted and unfairly sentenced.  Patrick understands better than anyone what it means to fight for your life and freedom, and he continues to put up his best fight for the clients of TLT Law.