Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Robert Reith was convicted by jury for the murder of his ex-wife and sentenced to life. He appealed, but his conviction and sentence was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. On appeal to the Supreme Court, Reith argued the trial court erred in granting pattern jury instruction S-5, and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel with regard to that instruction. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded, finding that the trial court erred in granting instruction S-5, and that the error was not harmless. "Deliberate design may not be presumed, and we overrule our prior cases to the extent that they conflict with this principle. We admonish the circuit courts not to grant an instruction which relies upon a presumption of intent, as it conflicts with the presumption of innocence, relieving the State of its burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on an essential element of the offense." View "Reith v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Craig Williams was convicted by jury of armed robbery. Williams appealed his conviction, claiming: (1) a broken "BB gun" did not meet the definition of a deadly weapon for purposes of Mississippi's armed-robbery statute; (2) the trial court failed to instruct the jury regarding the legal definition of a deadly weapon; and (3) because the jury was instructed that they "need not actually see a deadly weapon," they were misinstructed on the legal necessity of the use of a deadly weapon. Finding no merit in any of these contentions, the Supreme Court affirmed Williams's armed robbery conviction. View "Williams v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Stevenson Ford was convicted of murder, and he was sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole. Ford appealed, arguing he was entitled to a mistrial after an officer testified to hearsay that previously had been ruled inadmissible, that he was entitled to a mistrial due to the jury's premature deliberations, and that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Ford v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

James McCoy appealed his convictions and sentences for two counts of armed robbery. McCoy's appellate counsel argues that McCoy's sentences are excessive and the result of vindictiveness, that McCoy was denied a fair trial due to the prosecutor's use of the golden-rule argument, and that McCoy received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. McCoy filed a pro se supplemental brief, raising four additional assignments of error. But finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed McCoy's convictions and sentences. View "McCoy v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In a matter of first impression, the issue before the Supreme Court centered on whether one wrongfully convicted of a crime and placed in the Intensive Supervision Program, commonly known as house arrest, is entitled to compensation under Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to -7. Frank Sanders Tipton was convicted of extortion and served time in Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) facilities as well as in the Intensive Supervision Program. After the Court vacated his judgment, Tipton filed a claim for compensation for wrongful conviction and incarceration. The State agreed to pay Tipton for his time served in prison but not for his time in the Intensive Supervision Program. After both sides filed for summary judgment, the Circuit Court granted summary judgment for the State, which Tipton appealed. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s grant of summary judgment. View "Tipton v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

David Lee Rice filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Circuit Court, arguing that he had been improperly sentenced to life without parole as a habitual offender after a 1996 conviction for auto burglary. Finding Rice's arguments on appeal to be without merit, the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's judgment.View "Rice v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Johnny Ray Sims was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, with each count alleging a separate victim. The trial court subsequently accepted the defendant’s best-interest guilty plea to one count of aggravated assault and dismissed the remaining counts. As part of his sentence, Sims was ordered to pay restitution to an alleged victim named in one of the dismissed counts. More than three years later, Sims filed a petition for post-conviction relief, raising a claim of illegal sentence, among several other claims. The trial court dismissed Sims’s petition as time-barred and successive, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal. The Supreme Court granted Sims’s petition for writ of certiorari to review his claim that restitution related to a dismissed charged was improper. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that in exchange for his plea of guilty, two aggravated-assault charges against Sims were dismissed. The Court found Sims waived any objection to the restitution order: neither Sims nor his attorney ever objected – either at the plea hearing or two weeks later at the sentencing hearing – to the imposition of the restitution or the amount or the distribution of the restitution ordered. "Sims should not now be allowed to complain." Accordingly, the Court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of Sims’s petition for post-conviction relief. View "Sims v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Robert Sherman was indicted for willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously possessing pseudoephedrine and sodium hydroxide with the unlawful intent to manufacture a controlled substance. He was tried and convicted then sentenced to twelve years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with eight years to serve and four years suspended, plus five years of post-release supervision. Sherman appealed, arguing that his conviction: (1) was based upon insufficient evidence; or (2) was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed Sherman's conviction and sentence. View "Sherman v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Dexter Fulton was convicted for receiving stolen property. The Court of Appeals affirmed Fulton’s conviction and sentence on direct appeal. The Supreme Court granted Fulton’s petition for writ of certiorari to determine whether Fulton’s indictment was fatally defective and whether the trial court erred in allowing an amendment of substance to Fulton’s indictment. The Supreme Court found error as to both issues and reversed the judgments of the Court of Appeals and the circuit court. The conviction was vacated. View "Fulton v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Lyndon Myers was charged and convicted on multiple counts of armed robbery stemming from the 2012 robbery of a Madison Dollar Tree store. Myers raised five alleged errors from trial on appeal of his conviction. The Supreme Court found none and affirmed his convictions and sentences. View "Myers v. Mississippi" on Justia Law