Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Travaris Christian was convicted on two counts of capital murder (underlying felony of robbery); one count of house burglary, conspiracy to commit house burglary, felonious child neglect, and felon in possession of a firearm. Christian appealed, claiming his constitutional rights to confrontation were violated; his convictions were supported by insufficient evidence; and the trial court erred in granting the State an aiding-and-abetting instruction and denying him an abandonment instruction. Finding no merit in any of the issues raised, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Christian’s convictions. View "Christian v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Donald Bell appealed his conviction and sentence for attempted armed robbery. The jury returned from deliberations and informed the court that they had failed to reach a unanimous decision. Learning the jury was split nine-to-three, the judge instructed them to go back and deliberate one more time. Prior to releasing them for further deliberations, he stated to the jury: "But I don’t want you going back there just being stubborn. Go back there with the seriousness of purpose because you came here to do a job and if we can get a unanimous decision from you, we would like to." Defense counsel immediately moved for a mistrial, arguing that the court’s comment “place[d] undue pressure on those three individuals at this point to make up - come to a decision when their consci[ence] didn’t allow them to issue a conclusion.” That motion was denied. The jury returned its verdict, and Bell was sentenced to a five-year term of imprisonment. The Supreme Court reversed, finding that the trial judge’s comments to the jurors before sending them back for further deliberations were impermissibly suggestive and capable of being interpreted as coercive. The case was remanded for a new trial. View "Bell v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Brodrick Moody was found guilty of possession of a cell phone while he was incarcerated, for which he was sentenced to ten years, to run consecutively to the sentence he was already serving. Moody appealed, arguing the trial court erred in instructing the jury as to the applicable law and burden of proof. After review, the Supreme Court agreed that the trial court erred in instructing the jury and reversed Moody’s conviction on the cell phone offense, vacated his sentence, and remanded for a new trial. View "Moody v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

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

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