Justia Criminal Law Opinion Summaries

Charles Allen, a parole-eligible inmate in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), filed a request pursuant to the administrative review procedure (ARP) that MDOC develop a case plan for him. MDOC denied the request and, after exhausting his administrative remedies, Allen appealed to the Circuit Court of Sunflower County. The circuit court found that Allen was entitled to receive a case plan under an amendment to the Probation and Parole Law. MDOC appealed, arguing that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction over Allen's appeal because it was untimely, and, alternatively, that the Probation and Parole Law did not entitle Allen to receive a case plan. Because MDOC’s argument that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction over Allen’s action was not supported by the record, the Supreme Court did not consider it. The Supreme Court found that the Probation and Parole Law did not entitle Allen to a case plan. Therefore, the Court reversed the decision of the circuit court and rendered a decision in favor of MDOC. View "Mississippi Dept. of Corrections v. Allen" on Justia Law

The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) appealed the Sunflower County Circuit Court’s decision requiring it to develop a parole case plan for Jerry Bland. In 1982, Bland pleaded guilty to capital murder, burglary of a dwelling, and uttering a forgery. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the capital murder, to ten years for the burglary, and to fifteen years for the forgery. Bland first was eligible for parole in October 1998, but he was denied. Since then, Bland had seven more parole hearings. After House Bill 585 went into effect in July 2014, Bland sought a parole case plan pursuant to newly enacted Mississippi Code Section 47-7-3.1. On July 1, 2015, Bland filed his "first step" with MDOC’s Administrative Remedy Program (ARP). In response, MDOC said that House Bill 585 was not retroactive and that it applied only to those offenders sentenced on or after July 1, 2014. Bland then filed a motion for judicial review with the Circuit Court, and the circuit judge reversed MDOC’s decision, finding that Section 47-7-3.1 applied retroactively to offenders sentenced before July 1, 2014. MDOC appealed. Because the Supreme Court found that section 47-7-3.1 did not clearly and unequivocally express an intention for retroactive applicability, the Supreme Court reversed the Circuit Court's judgment. View "Mississippi Dept. of Corrections v. Bland" on Justia Law

Justin Crockett pled guilty in Panola County Justice Court to headlighting a deer. Crockett appealed his conviction to the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Panola County. After a bench trial de novo, that court found Crockett guilty. Crockett then appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, arguing solely that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction. Finding sufficient evidence in the record to sustain Crockett’s conviction, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Crockett v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

On the morning of his client’s trial, defense attorney A. Randall Harris tried to withdraw as counsel. When the judge declined his request, Harris told the judge he was “wrong” for doing so, and he “was not going to participate” in the trial. Harris’s refusal to abide by the court’s order forced a continuance. And the judge held him in direct criminal contempt. Harris appealed, but the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment finding Harris guilty of direct criminal contempt and ordering Harris to pay a $100 fine and $1,200 for the cost of the jury venire. View "Harris v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury convicted James Willie of deliberate design murder. He appealed the conviction, arguing on appeal: (1) that the trial court erred in allowing the State’s ballistic expert to give definitive testimony matching bullets from the crime scene to a gun linked to Willie; (2) that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to object to the ballistics testimony; (3) that the jury returned a guilty verdict against the overwhelming weight of the evidence; and (4) that the trial court improperly answered a question submitted by the jury. The Supreme Court held that the judge erred in answering a question posed by the jury during deliberations, and reversed Willie’s conviction and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings. View "Willie v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

The State appealed the Circuit Court’s order granting partial relief on Michael Drankus’s motion for declaratory and injunctive relief. Drankus, an inmate in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), sought a declaratory judgment that Mississippi Code Section 47-7-3.1 was a mandate to MDOC which required MDOC to develop a “case plan” for all parole-eligible inmates and that MDOC was in violation of that section. Drankus also sought an order that would reverse an adverse decision by MDOC’s Administrative Remedy Program (ARP); an injunction directing MDOC to promulgate policies and procedures that comply with Section 47-7-3.1; and an order directing MDOC to develop a case plan for Drankus. The circuit court ruled only on MDOC’s adverse ARP decision, found that, based on the circuit court’s interpretation of Section 47-7-3.1, Drankus was entitled to receive a case plan pursuant to Section 47-7-3.1. MDOC appealed that decision. Finding that Drankus was not entitled to a case plan, the Supreme Court reversed the circuit court’s order. View "Fisher v. Drankus" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Kelvin Jordan of two counts of capital murder in 1996, for which he received the death penalty. Jordan was denied post-conviction relief (PCR). He filed a successive petition for post-conviction relief in which he argued that his previous attorneys were constitutionally ineffective, that the death sentence is disproportionate, and that the trial judge erred in evidentiary decisions at trial. The Supreme Court held that all of Jordan’s claims except his claim of ineffective post-conviction relief counsel are barred as untimely, as successive, by res judicata, or a combination of all three. His claim of ineffective assistance of post-conviction relief counsel was not permitted to proceed because attorneys were not permitted to raise claims of their own ineffectiveness. View "Jordan v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Robert “Bay Bay” Carson of capital murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, all of which arose from the 2012 shooting death of Juan Ortiz during an armed robbery. Carson received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his capital-murder conviction, a ten-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and a five-year sentence for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. On appeal, Carson argued that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request an instruction regarding the unreliability of accomplice testimony and that there was a “reasonable probability” that there would have been a different outcome at trial if counsel had requested the instruction. He also argued that he was entitled to receive his proposed instruction D-6. Find his arguments to be without merit, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed his convictions. View "Carson v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In 2013, Chaddy Brooks looked through her boyfriend’s phone and saw text messages from another woman. The couple got into an argument that later became physical, and ended with Brooks stabbing the boyfriend in the neck with a kitchen knife. Brooks was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to serve forty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. She appealed, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to convict her, and that she received ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Brooks v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Tamra Stuckey was shot and killed on the couch in Charles Kuebler’s apartment in the early morning hours of June 30, 2010. Tamra had been staying at Kuebler’s apartment for three or four days prior and had shown an unreciprocated romantic interest in Kuebler at that time. The trial court allowed the State to introduce evidence of Kuebler’s flight from custody in July 2011, approximately ten months after he was released on bond. The jury returned a verdict finding Kuebler guilty of deliberate-design murder, and the trial court sentenced him to life in prison. In December 2011, Kuebler filed a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, a new trial. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion in October 2012. Kuebler timely appealed. The Court of Appeals found error with the admission of evidence of Kuebler’s flight and the related jury instruction but held that it was harmless error and affirmed Kuebler’s conviction and sentence. After its review, the Supreme Court found that the trial court committed reversible error by denying Kuebler the opportunity to present his theory of defense, in granting a flight instruction, and by prohibiting Kuebler from offering evidence to rebut the State’s argument that his flight indicated consciousness of guilt. Accordingly, the appellate court was reversed and the matter remanded for a new trial. View "Kuebler v. Mississippi" on Justia Law