Justia Criminal Law Opinion Summaries

A circuit court judge ruled death-row inmate Kevin Scott was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment. The State appealed: (1) the trial judge ignored the mandate of the case before this, “Scott II,” which directed Scott take a specific malingering test before his intellectual disability hearing; (2) the trial judge abused his discretion when he permitted Scott’s experts to testify at the intellectual-disability hearing; and (3) the trial judge failed to make independent findings off act and conclusions of law when ruling Scott intellectually disabled. After review, the Mississippi Supreme Court found no reversible error: the requirement to take a specific malingering test was expressly overruled four months after the mandate in Scott II. The admission of Scott’s experts was within the sound discretion of the trial court. Finally, though the State had ample opportunity, it made no attempt to supplement the record to prove its allegation that the trial judge recited Scott’s proposed findings instead of making his own independent findings. The Court affirmed the order vacating Scott’s death sentence based on the finding of intellectual disability. The case was remanded for resentencing. View "Mississippi v. Scott" on Justia Law

Defendant Zachary Cozart was convicted by jury of manslaughter, for which he was sentenced to thirty years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Cozart appealed, arguing Mississippi Code Section 97-3-25(b) (Rev. 2014) was not enacted until after defendant’s crime, therefore it was a violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the state constitution. The Court of Appeals found that although the statute at issue here was not enacted until after defendant’s crime, he waived any objection to a harsher sentence when he agreed to a jury instruction that mirrored the revised manslaughter penalty statute. The Mississippi Supreme Court found defendant’s sentence under the amended statute amounted to an ex post facto violation, reversed the sentence, and remanded for further proceedings. View "Cozart v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Laterrence Lenoir was claimed to be one of the armed robbers captured on surveillance video. Under Rule 701, the trial judge was within his discretion to admit testimony from witnesses familiar with Lenoir that, in their opinion, Lenoir was one of the robbers in the video. The Mississippi Supreme Court found find no error in the trial judge’s admission of this testimony, nor did the Court find error in the judge’s denial of Lenoir’s motion for new trial. View "Lenoir v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Victoria Swanagan was convicted by a jury of the depraved-heart murder of Vincent Hill and was sentenced to twenty-five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), with ten years suspended, fifteen years to serve, and five years of supervised probation. The Mississippi Supreme Court found the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict, the verdict was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, the trial court did not err in instructing the jury, and defendant did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel. View "Swanagan v.Mississippi" on Justia Law

There was no abuse of the trial court’s discretion in denying a mistrial, no was there an abuse of discretion in handling the discovery of a prosecution’s expert’s testimony. A grand jury indicted Jesse Mouton on four counts of sexually assaulting N.B. Counts one and two charged Mouton with sexual battery. Counts three and four charged him with touching a child for lustful purposes. In this case, an expert witness testified that injuries to a child were consistent with sexual abuse. Her reports, photographs of the injured body area, and expert opinion were previously disclosed to the defense. Yet, at trial, the defense took issue with the expert’s testimony about the relevance of the shape of some of the injuries. After assessing the defendant’s request to exclude the expert’s testimony, the trial judge denied it. Though the court found no discovery violation, the judge recessed trial for the day so defense counsel could further interview the expert, and restricted the expert’s testimony to external injuries but allowed the expert to give an opinion that the child’s injuries resulted from sexual assault. The defendant appealed the outcome, arguing that the trial court’s actions in handling the expert’s testimony and report denied him a fair trial. Finding no reversible error in the trial court record, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed defendant’s convictions. View "Mouton v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

After review of the facts of this case, the Mississippi Supreme Court concluded that Dillon Williams waived his right to sentencing by jury when he pled guilty to burglary and aggravated assault. For those crimes, a circuit court sentenced him to twenty years for the assault, and twenty-five years for the burglary. The trial court added a twenty-year enhancement to the assault charge because Williams’ victim was an elderly woman. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court that denied Williams’s request for post-conviction relief, and affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals that affirmed the trial court. View "Williams v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury found Alvin Brown guilty of manslaughter and four counts of aggravated assault. The circuit court sentenced Brown to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for manslaughter and ten years for each aggravated assault conviction, with the aggravated assault sentences to run concurrently with each other and consecutively to the manslaughter sentence. Brown appealed and the Court of Appeal reversed and remanded for a new trial as to only the aggravated assault convictions due to a variance between the indictment and the jury instructions. Finding no merit as to Brown's appeal of the self-defense instruction, the appellate court affirmed. Because the Court of Appeals’ affirmed the trial court’s decision to give the State’s imperfect self-defense instruction, which conflicted with controlling caselaw affirming the refusal of imperfect self-defense instructions when requested by defendants, the Supreme Court also reversed Brown’s manslaughter conviction. View "Brown v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

The Mississippi Supreme Court concluded that the trial court record in this case supported a criminal-contempt finding beyond a reasonable doubt. Christopher Scott Routh was found in direct criminal contempt after he disrespected the court -specifically by standing up to dispute a judge’s bond ruling after the bond hearing had been concluded and despite being directed by the judge to sit down and make any further argument by written motion. View "Routh v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Janice Wilcher appealed her conviction for retaliation against a public servant for making a false representation of rape against Deputy Michael Townsend of the Scott County Sheriff’s Department. Wilcher claimed Section 97-9-127 was unconstitutionally vague. Wilcher further claimed the State failed to prove that Deputy Townsend suffered any actual harm, as alleged in the indictment. Finding no merit in either issue, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed. View "Wilcher v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Tameshia Shelton was convicted by jury of the murder of Daniel Young. After the trial, Shelton filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or in the alternative for a new trial. The trial court denied the motion. Shelton appealed, raising three issues: (1) challenging the sufficiency of the evidence; (2) alleging the verdict was against the weight of the evidence; and (3) alleging the trial court erred by denying her requested two-theory jury instruction. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed her conviction. View "Shelton v. Mississippi" on Justia Law