On April 1st, 2010, Nashville Tennessee Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn accepted Rivera's older brother and co-defendant Antonio Harris’s guilty plea for the second-degree murder of Mr. Linburg Thompson of Nashville Tennessee. The acceptance of responsibility on the part of Antonio Harris was a step toward the conclusion of this case.
Meanwhile, Rivera's litigation process included a biased judge, malicious prosecution, and a lack of guidance from court-appointed counsel. This repulsive recipe of litigation sealed Rivera Peoples’ fate of being found guilty and receiving a sentence of life in prison.
Instead of relief from a lack of due process, charges were increased with a superseding indictment on June 2, 2010. The charges escalated from First Degree Murder to Attempted Second Degree Murder and Employment of a Firearm during a dangerous felony. This change applied to Rivera along with co-defendants, James Dowell and Brian Moreland. Rivera was determined to fight back against a system that was determined to take his life.
During the arraignment of the superseding indictment, Nashville Davidson County Judge Cheryl Blackburn appointed Nashville Attorney Nathan Moore as Rivera's court-appointed defense attorney. That day was the only time that Rivera would see and talk to Attorney Moore until his trial date that commenced 90 days later on August 9th, 2010.

While awaiting trial, Attorney Moore never visited Rivera to review the State’s case against him. Attorney Moore never filed any pretrial motions or conducted an adequate investigation. He never reviewed the discovery or attempted to negotiate a plea agreement on the lesser charges. Attorney Moore did not review jury instructions, prepare any type of defense for trial, or conduct an interview with Rivera to, at least, formally introduce himself. Attorney Moore never met with Rivera to discuss his strategy to defend Rivera's life, liberty, and freedom against weighty charges. Rivera was frustrated due to the abandonment of his attorney. It was time for trial, and he had not seen or met with Attorney Moore since the day he was assigned. During the trial proceedings, Rivera respectfully attempted to voice his concern to the one person who was to be unbiased and protect the integrity of Rivera’s constitutional right to fair trial, Judge Cheryl Blackburn. Rivera's respectful attempt to address his concern of his 6th and 14th amendment were met with threats of removal from the court by Judge Blackburn. 

In this case, the State of Tennessee’s argumentative theory rested entirely on the testimony of co-defendant, Brian Moreland.  This was the only direct testimony that placed Rivera on the scene of the murder. Due to the lack of evidence such as Rivera's DNA at or near the crime scene, Rivera was never picked out of a lineup. Rivera was not identified from the video at the crime scene. Without Brian Moreland’s testimony, the case was nothing more than a theory. Further, the defense counsel failed to adequately impeach Brian Moreland’s testimony with rebuttal statements of several witnesses from the Edgehill community that overheard Brian Moreland give a different narrative of the events leading to the murder that Rivera was convicted of. What’s more surprising is the State of Tennessee was aware that Mr. Moreland was potentially presenting false testimony and continued to allow the presentation of false testimony to the jury.
This is clearly a violation of the law. (United States v Naples, 192 F. Supp.23.) 

As if the aforementioned violations weren’t enough, Rivera’s constitutional right to subject the case to an adversarial testing was violated. Rivera attempted to testify about the statements made by his brother, Antonio Harris, during his plea agreement that would mitigate his involvement in the offense. However, Judge Blackburn chastised him and refused to allow him to refer to Antonio’s testimony. This restriction violated his constitutional right to a defense that made the trial unfair. Rivera’s right to due process was denied. Additionally, Attorney Moore offered no remedy to Judge Blackburn’s refusal to allow Rivera to testify about the guilty plea of his brother. There should have been a subpoena of Mr. Harris’s testament and an opportunity to offer his testimony at Rivera’s trial. This reckless abandonment by Rivera's court appointed attorney ultimately cost Rivera. In addition to violating Rivera's right to fair trial, it restricted
Rivera's right to make a record that can be reviewed on appeal.

A judge’s robe can be seen as similar to the uniform worn by a referee in a sporting event. When they put on that black robe, they become the mediator and the ultimate representative of the law. Their role is to uphold all of the law, and namely, the 6th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Judge Blackburn’s role was to remain neutral, presiding as an impartial mediator, at which she failed.

Intimidated by a clear, obvious, and unnecessary threat from Judge Blackburn to be removed, Rivera respectfully complied and proceeded to trial with an attorney that offered no assistance in his defense. Attorney Moore was guilty of abandoning Rivera along with a judge who created a hostile environment.
Not surprisingly, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Not long after Rivera's first trial, he again proceeded through another unfair and unconstitutional trial on a different indictment accusing him of being "criminally responsible" for the conduct of another. This trial was with the same characters, a biased judge, malicious prosecutor, and the same perjured codefendants. Brian Moreland continued to give perjured testimony. Of course, it yielded the same results.

This led to an additional sentence of 100 years in conjunction with the life sentence.