Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Jason Hall appealed a circuit court order dismissing his petition for statutory compensation under Mississippi’s Compensation Act for Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment. After review of the particular facts of this case, the Supreme Court found the circuit court erred in finding Hall had failed to establish his innocence as required by Mississippi Code Section 11-44-7(1)(b) because the Order Passing to Inactive Files was neither a dismissal nor a nolle prosequi pursuant to Section 11-44-3(c). Accordingly, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded the matter for further proceedings. View "Hall v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A grand jury indicted Dewayne Graham on kidnapping, forcible rape, and sexual battery charges. The trial court reset the trial date five times over the next sixteen months. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict and the trial court sentenced him to thirty years' imprisonment as a habitual offender. Graham raised four issues on appeal, but finding no merit to any, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed. View "Graham v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Thomas Tubbs was indicted, tried, and found guilty by jury of molestation and sentenced by the trial judge to fifteen years’ imprisonment. Tubbs argued on appeal of that conviction that the trial court erred in admitting the child-victim’s testimony as well as a hearsay statement made by the victim to her grandmother. Tubbs also argued certain evidence should have been excluded due to a break in the chain of custody. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed Tubbs’s conviction and sentence. View "Tubbs v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

John Hale was convicted on four counts of sale or transfer of a controlled substance and was sentenced as a habitual offender to serve a total of sixteen years’ imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On appeal, Hale argued that the trial court erred in denying his proffered jury instructions on the defenses of involuntary intoxication and entrapment. Hale also filed a pro se supplemental brief, in which he raises various other issues. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed Hale’s convictions and sentences. View "Hale v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In February 2012, the Adams County Sheriff’s Department recovered three firearms from the trunk of Verenzo Green’s vehicle during an inventory search of the vehicle. A grand jury indicted Green and, following a trial in the Adams County Circuit Court, a jury convicted Green of three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of trafficking a firearm. The Court of Appeals affirmed Green’s convictions and sentences, and Green appealed to the Supreme Court on grounds of an alleged double jeopardy violation first raised sua sponte in a dissent by the Court of Appeals using the plain error doctrine. The Supreme Court found that the principle of law argued by Green, which he adopted from the Court of Appeals dissent, was not appropriate for plain error review. Accordingly, the Court affirmed. View "Green v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Lester Moore was indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for felony shoplifting. He appealed, but finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Moore v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Shunbrica Roby of deliberate-design murder, and the trial judge sentenced her to life in prison. Roby appealed, arguing: (1) that the State’s evidence was legally insufficient and that her conviction was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence; (2) that her Sixth Amendment right to confrontation was violated; and (3) that the trial court erred in granting and/or refusing several jury instructions. After review, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial based on the jury-instruction issue. View "Roby v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Bobby Batiste was convicted of capital murder with the underlying felony of robbery and was sentenced to death. On appeal of that sentence, Batiste raised sixteen issues. The Supreme Court addressed one: whether certain statements alleged to have been made by bailiffs to jurors, violated Batiste's constitutional right to an impartial jury. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that Batiste made a substantial showing of a denial of a state or federal right sufficient to entitle him to a hearing to enable the circuit court to ascertain what communications were had between bailiffs and/or other persons and the jury and to determine, insofar as was possible, what impact, if any, those communications had on Batiste’s conviction and sentence. The Court granted Batiste’s motion for leave to file his petition for post-conviction relief. View "Batiste v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Defendant Markeith Fleming was convicted of murder and aggravated assault. He claimed he was in another county at his girlfriend's house at the time the shooting occurred. Approximately two weeks before trial, the State disclosed its intent to have an AT&T engineer testify about Fleming’s whereabouts, using Fleming’s cell-phone records. Fleming requested a continuance to obtain his own expert on the subject, but the circuit judge denied that motion, finding that the engineer would testify only about information that was contained in the records and that had been disclosed to defense counsel much earlier. Because the engineer (without being tendered or accepted as an expert) was allowed to provide expert testimony beyond the information contained in the records, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded. View "Fleming v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Graham Warwick appealed his conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana, arguing that his conviction is against the weight and sufficiency of the evidence. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Warwick v. Mississippi" on Justia Law