KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Special Judge Kerry Blackwood has taken jurisdiction of four convicts' cases in the torture-slayings of a young Knoxville couple. The assignment came Friday during a proceeding involving all three Knox County Criminal Court judges, The Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The ongoing cases handed to Blackwood involve appeals by four people convicted in the kidnapping, rape and murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in January 2007.