Well, you did say it was a slam dunk and inferred that lack of effort was the reason it hasn’t been fixed. Many more capable attorneys than myself have been trying to get these laws changed without success. But I understand what you’re saying, now.
The settlement thing is not a gripe. I’m not saying it’s unfair. It’s just a barrier to progress. Trial court decisions etc. don’t make lasting changes. Trial courts can (and some do) decide the same facts differently two day in a row.
Appellate Courts don’t care for a number of reasons. Some of it is indeed how laws are written. In TN, the path to political office has never been to “go soft on crime.” Some of it is that state judges are subject to retention and, Penny White, for example, got campaigned against and voted off the Supreme Court for being too deferential to defendant’s rights. Some of it is that there are competing policy arguments: that litigation would bankrupt municipalities or that it will cause cops to get slaughtered in droves while they hesitate deciding whether or not shooting this guy will get them sued. (Neither seems particularly compelling to me, in light of recent events). There are other reasons, I’m sure, but those come to mind.