Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

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

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

The Pascagoula-Gautier School District and the City of Pascagoula took issue with the Jackson County Board of Supervisors’ approval of the Tax Assessor’s methodology in assessing taxes on Chevron’s leasehold interest in property it leased from Jackson County. After several years of litigation, and after the trial court had denied two motions to dismiss for lack of standing, the trial court sua sponte reversed course and granted the second motion to dismiss for lack of standing, reasoning that the School District and City lacked standing because Mississippi Code Section 11-51-77 did not specifically grant them standing. Because the School District and the City did not need to show a specific statute authorizing standing, and because they otherwise demonstrated standing, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court judgment on this issue. View "Pascagoula-Gautier Sch. Dist. v. Bd. of Supervisors of Jackson County" on Justia Law

While a resident at Cleveland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, LLC, (“Cleveland”), Annie Mae Gully fell and broke her hip. Following complications from a surgical procedure to repair her hip, Gully died six days later. Subsequently, suit was filed against Cleveland, alleging claims of negligence and gross negligence. Following a verdict in the Estate's favor, Cleveland moved for a new trial, arguing, among other things, that the jury had been allowed to hear undisclosed opinions from an expert and improper closing argument from counsel for the Estate. After review, the Supreme Court agreed with this contention, reversed the trial court, and remanded for a new trial. View "Cleveland Nursing and Rehabilitation, LLC v. Estate of Annie Mae Gully" on Justia Law

After suffering a fall at work, Linda Mitchell returned to the same position she had before her injury, and continued to work for more than seven months until she was terminated for a cause unrelated to the injury. She then sought and was awarded disability benefits from the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. But because the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and Commission both failed to recognize that Mitchell’s return to work created a rebuttable presumption that she suffered no loss of earning capacity, the Supreme Court reversed the award of disability benefits and remanded this case to the Commission to apply the correct legal standard. View "Hudspeth Regional Center v. Mitchell" on Justia Law

The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance recommended to the Mississippi Supreme Court that former Madison County Justice Court Judge William “Bill” Weisenberger Sr. be removed from office after finding by clear and convincing evidence that Weisenberger physically and verbally assaulted a mentally disabled individual at the 2014 Canton Flea Market. Because of the egregious nature of Weisenberger’s actions, the Supreme Court agreed with the Commission’s recommendation and removed Weisenberger from office. Weisenberger was directed to pay a fine in the amount of $1,000 and costs of these proceedings in the amount of $5,918.46. View "Mississippi Comm'n on Judicial Perf. v. Weisenberger" on Justia Law

This was the second appeal of the equitable distribution of assets of Howard Carney III and Andrea Bell Carney by the Chancery Court of Warren County. In the first appeal, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded, holding that the chancellor manifestly had erred by awarding 100% of the equity in the marital home to the wife without explanation for the award. On remand, the chancellor reweighed the applicable "Ferguson" factors and again awarded 100% of the equity in the marital domicile to Andrea Carney. Howard appealed. Under the deferential standard of review applicable to the decisions of the chancery court, the Supreme Court found that the chancellor’s equitable distribution on remand was not manifestly wrong or clearly erroneous. Therefore, the judgment was affirmed. View "Carney v. Carney" 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