Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Larry Wells was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to transfer and was sentenced as an habitual offender and a recidivist drug offender to sixty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Wells appealed his conviction and sentence and the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but remanded the case for resentencing. On remand, the Circuit Court declined to apply the subsequent-drug-offender enhancement and reduced Wells’s sentence from sixty years to thirty years. Wells appealed, contending that the trial court’s refusal to sentence him under the amended version of the statute, which became effective before his resentencing, was erroneous. The Supreme Court affirmed the second sentence, finding that the statutory amendment occurred several years after the commission of the crime and after Wells’s initial sentencing. View "Wells v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In 2003, the Mississippi State Tax Commission (now the Department of Revenue) assessed additional income tax, penalties, and interest in an amount greater than $11.75 million against AT&T based on its income from dividends from non-Mississippi subsidiaries. After exhausting its administrative remedies, AT&T appealed to the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, arguing that a portion of Section 27-7-15(4)(i) discriminated against interstate commerce in violation of the negative, or dormant, aspect of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. AT&T argued that the scheme allowed an income tax exemption for dividends received from AT&T’s Mississippi subsidiaries while denying an exemption to similarly situated non-Mississippi subsidiaries. Ultimately, the chancellor agreed and declared a portion of Section 27-7-15(4)(i) as unconstitutional. Having determined that the geographical limitation in Section 27-7-15(4)(i) offended the negative aspect of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, the Mississippi Supreme Court held that portion of it to be unconstitutional and invalid. The phrase “under the provisions of this article” was struck from Section 27-7-15(4)(i) and the severance was be applied to AT&T for the tax years at issue in this case. The judgment of the Chancery Court was affirmed. View "Miss. Dept. of Revenue v. AT&T Corporation" on Justia Law

Eddie Hall was convicted of murdering Johnny “Tubby” Hubbard in the Black Cat community of Covington County. The jury received eyewitness testimony that when a fight broke out at the end of a horse show, Hall retrieved a gun from his trailer and shot Tubby twice as Tubby attempted to break up the fight and leave the scene. On appeal, Hall argued that the judge made errors during the jury selection process and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding no reversible error after review of the case, the Supreme Court affirmed Hall’s conviction and life sentence. View "Hall v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In October 2006, a jury convicted Nathaniel Walden for murder and shooting into an occupied dwelling. The Mississippi Supreme Court granted Walden leave to proceed in the circuit court with a petition for post-conviction relief claiming ineffective assistance of counsel during the plea bargaining process. The circuit judge summarily dismissed the petition, erroneously concluding that the petitioner had not timely filed or obtained leave from the Supreme Court. In the alternative, the circuit judge dismissed the petition because it relied on the petitioner’s own affidavit, but the circuit judge failed to consider that the petitioner claimed good cause for failure to obtain other affidavits. The Supreme Court reversed the summary dismissal and remanded this case to the circuit court for further consideration. View "Walden v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury found Daner Ford guilty of acting in concert to bring about the death of Marvin Stuckett, for a firearm enhancement, and for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The trial court sentenced him as a habitual offender to a term of life imprisonment. He appealed, raising multiple issues of alleged error at the trial court. But finding none, the Supreme Court affirmed Ford's conviction and sentence. View "Ford v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

The Lamar County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) arrested Warren Lewis for possession with intent. Lewis ultimately pled guilty in federal court to possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of methamphetamine. Shortly thereafter, the State initiated a forfeiture proceeding and sought real property, personal property, and currency owned by Lewis. The trial court awarded the State all of the property sought. Lewis moved for a new trial, or alternatively, to amend the judgment, which the trial judge denied. During the pendency of these proceedings, Lewis died. He had previously transferred all of his property into a revocable trust, naming David Smith as trustee. As trustee of Lewis’ revocable trust, Smith appealed. Mississippi law required a nexus between the offense and the property in order to render the property forfeitable. Here, the State failed to establish the required nexus between some of Lewis’ property and his criminal conduct. As such, the Supreme Court affirmed forfeiture of certain property for their direct nexus to Lewis' crimes, but reversed as to others. View "Warren L. Lewis Revocable Trust v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Terry Roberson for the murder of Tonya Burton and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. On appeal, Roberson claimed the trial court erred by denying his proposed circumstantial-evidence instruction, by failing to grant a mistrial or spoliation instruction based on a missing audio recording, by failing to grant a mistrial based on hearsay testimony, and by admitting a shotgun and several shotguns shells into evidence. He also claimed the State presented insufficient evidence to support his conviction for murder. After review, the Supreme Court found: (1) the circumstantial-evidence instruction was fairly covered elsewhere in the instructions; (2) Roberson’s due process rights were not violated, and he failed to request a spoliation instruction; (3) the trial judge offered and Roberson rejected an instruction to cure the hearsay testimony; (4) the shotgun and shells were admissible relevant evidence; and (5) the evidence supported the jury’s verdict. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the trial court. View "Roberson v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury found Jerome Clemons guilty of felony driving under the influence (DUI), and he was sentenced to serve five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He appealed, arguing that the jury’s verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Clemons v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Lamarcus Jones was indicted for the 2008 shooting death of Marveo Lane. Mareno Hubbard testified that Lamarcus Jones was the shooter. Jones received a life sentence. After Jones' conviction and sentence, Hubbard pled guilty to manslaughter and was given a sentence of twenty years, with eight years suspended and credit for time served. There were three mistrials in this case. On appeal of his eventual conviction, Jones raised five issues challenging trial court procedure and his resulting conviction and sentence. "Finding Jones’s assignments of error to be unavailing," the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence. View "Jones v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Death-row inmate Anthony Carr raised an Eighth Amendment challenge to this conviction for the deaths of Carl Bobbie Jo Parker and the Parkers' two children. Their feet and ankles were bound, and their wrists were tied behind their backs. Nine-year-old Charlotte was found naked from the waist down under her dress, and there was evidence of sexual battery (both vaginally and anally). The Circuit Court found that Carr had failed to prove that he was "intellectually disabled" within the purvey of the Eighth Amendment. After review, the Supreme Court reversed the circuit judge’s ruling and remanded this case for new factual findings because the court concluded the circuit court applied an incorrect legal standard when it ruled previously. View "Carr v. Mississippi" on Justia Law