Bruce Warren Scarborough (b. July 2, 1956), also known as the UT Rapist, committed a series of rapes near the campus of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1997. He made an effort to disguise his identity, covering his victims' eyes and attacking them in the dark. In 2002, the Knoxville Police Department received notice that there was a DNA match linking Scarborough to the years-old case. At the time, Scarborough was already serving a jail sentence. After the 2006 trial in which the jury found Scarborough guilty and sentenced him to 120 years in prison, one of the victims, Karen Rutenber Alderman, chose to publish her name and speak out about her story. The defendant appealed the verdict, which the Knox County Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Tennessee upheld.

Donald Franklin Paine was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1939. He earned his B.A. (1961), M.A. (1963), and LL.B. (1963) from the University of Tennessee. Immediately after graduation, Paine served in the Army as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He was discharged in 1966 and returned to Tennessee, where he authored the Tennessee Law of Evidence (1974). Paine practiced law with Paine, Tarwater, and Bickers in addition to researching Tennessee's legal history. He was a Reporter to the Supreme Court Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure, wrote a monthly column for the Tennessee Bar Journal, and lectured for the Tennessee Law Institute, the University of Tennessee College of Law, and the Tennessee Judicial Conference. Paine also served as President of the Knoxville Bar Association (1983) and of the Tennessee Bar Association (1986-1987).