Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Appellant Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (“the State”) had a search warrant signed and executed at the home of Bobby Ray Canada and Beverly Turman. Section one of the warrant, where the location for the search to be executed, was left completely blank. The State collected, among other things, $293,720 from the home, and the State then filed a civil forfeiture action. Canada and Turman filed a summary judgment motion, arguing that the search warrant was blank and void, and therefore, the search violated their Fourth Amendment Rights. The trial judge granted the summary judgment motion. The State appealed. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Mississippi, Ex Rel. Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics v. Canada" on Justia Law

Charles Burleson II appealed his conviction and sentence for capital murder (with the underlying felony of robbery). Finding that the trial court erred in amending Burleson’s indictment to charge him as a violent habitual offender and in denying Burleson’s proffered circumstantial-evidence instruction, the Supreme Court reversed Burleson’s conviction and sentence and remanded this case for a new trial. View "Burleson v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Jordan Davis was indicted for one count of auto theft, one count of grand larceny of a tractor, and one count of receiving stolen property concerning the same tractor. Davis was acquitted of auto theft and grand larceny but convicted of receiving stolen property. On appeal, the State confessed error because Claiborne County's dual charges against Davis for stealing and receiving the same property violated Mississippi Code Section 97-17-70(3)(a). The Court of Appeals reversed the receiving-stolen-property conviction, but remanded for further proceedings. Under Section 97-17-70(3)(a), when a defendant can be charged with either stealing or receiving the same property, the State must opt to charge the defendant with either stealing or receiving the property. Thus, he could not be retried for receiving the property under the plain terms of Section 97-17-70(3)(a). The Court of Appeals erred by remanding for further proceedings rather than rendering judgment. The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the Court of Appeals. The Court reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court of Claiborne County and rendered judgment in Davis's favor. View "Davis v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In, 2008, emergency personnel responded to reports of a house fire in Biloxi. In their efforts to extinguish the flames, firefighters discovered the remains of a human body in a bedroom of the house. Dental records would later identify the body as thirty-seven-year-old Michelle Lynn Craite. Craite's autopsy revealed multiple stab wounds to her back in addition to severe burns that destroyed her flesh down to the bone. Evidence indicated that Craite was still alive and breathing during the fire. A forensic pathologist opined that the stab wounds likely were the cause of Craite's death, however, he noted that the stab wounds also incapacitated Craite so that she could not escape from the fire. A Harrison County jury found Timothy Ronk guilty of capital murder of Craite and sentenced him to death. The jury also found Ronk guilty of armed robbery, and the trial court sentenced him to thirty years' imprisonment. Ronk appealed his convictions and sentences to the Supreme Court. Finding no error in the culpability phase or in the sentencing phase, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Ronk v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Michael Taylor was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to five years. In 2007, Michelle Finney arrived at a child’s birthday party and parked her car on the street, blocking Taylor’s car in a driveway. An argument and fistfight ensued. After bystanders broke up the fight, Taylor shot Finney in the arm and fled. Two days later, Taylor was at friend’s house when law enforcement officers arrived to execute unrelated arrest warrants. Taylor was detained after he tried to flee out a window in the back of the house. An investigator noticed a black coat on the couch, which Taylor claimed. Upon discovering a handgun and narcotics in the jacket, the officers arrested Taylor for possessing the narcotics and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Later that day, police obtained an arrest warrant for Taylor’s alleged aggravated assault on Finney. On appeal, Taylor’s counsel filed a "Lindsey" brief, stating that she had identified no appealable issues. After an independent review of the record and the briefs, the Supreme Court concluded that there were no reversible issues. View "Taylor v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Tyrone Boyd was convicted under Mississippi Code section 9705033(6) for the exploitation of a child. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison with seven to serve, five suspended and probation. Boyd appealed that sentence, claiming the trial court abused its discretion by admitting Facebook and texts into evidence, and that the State failed to properly authenticate them (the evidence linking him to the messages at issue was not sufficient to prove that he wrote them). The Supreme Court found Boyd's contention meritless, as he failed to preserve his objections at trial. Therefore, the Court affirmed Boyd's conviction and sentence. View "Boyd v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Jason Isham was convicted on one count of felonious child abuse. His wife’s two-year-old son, Tommy, was for a severe, traumatic brain injury, which caused severe swelling of the child’s brain, stroke, and permanent weakness on his right side. Because Isham was alone with Tommy when this occurred, he was charged with felonious child abuse of Tommy. At trial, expert medical witnesses for the State testified that Tommy’s injuries resulted from severe blunt trauma. Isham, who was represented by a public defender and a pro bono attorney, requested funds with which to hire his own expert to testify about possible alternative causes for Tommy’s injuries. The trial court denied the request. On appeal, Isham raised one issue: that the trial court erred when it refused him the funds necessary to hire an expert in his defense. In light of the Mississippi Supreme Court’s holding in "Brown v. Mississippi," (152 So. 3d 1146 (Miss. 2014)), the Court reversed Isham’s conviction and remanded the case for a new trial in which the trial court must order public funds for such defense experts as are necessary for the accused to prepare and present an adequate defense. View "Isham v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Ricky Chase filed a motion for post-conviction relief (PCR), arguing that he was intellectually disabled under "Atkins v. Virginia," (536 U.S. 304 (2002)), and exempt from execution. The circuit court denied relief, finding that Chase had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he is intellectually disabled. Chase appealed, arguing that the circuit court made legal errors and that its fact-findings were clearly erroneous. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Chase v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Joe Cook was convicted on two counts of sexual battery on his girlfriend’s daughter and for one count of directing or causing a felony to be committed by the girlfriend’s son. Cook was sentenced as an habitual offender to a life sentence for each of the two sexual battery counts and to twenty years for the single count of causing a felony to be committed by a minor. The three sentences were made to run concurrently. Cook argued on appeal that the children’s statements to a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) constituted inadmissible hearsay, that the children’s statements to their great-grandmother and to a forensic interviewer constituted inadmissible hearsay, and that the trial court erred by sentencing him as an habitual offender. Finding no merit to Cooks arguments on appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentences. View "Cook v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In its prosecution of Larry Collier for selling controlled substances, the State called a seasoned felon-turned-confidential-police-informant who provided untruthful testimony about previous criminal convictions, and whom the trial court refused to allow the defendant to fully cross-examine about those prior criminal convictions. Although the trial court erred in limiting the cross-examination, the Supreme Court found that, in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt, the error was harmless. View "Collier v. Mississippi" on Justia Law