Carlos Lawson appealed the Covington County Circuit Court’s denial of his motion for post-conviction relief after he pleaded guilty to fourth-offense DUI as a habitual offender and received consecutive sentences totaling fifteen years. He argued that his trial attorney provided ineffective assistance by misadvising him about concurrent sentences and failing to challenge his prior convictions or the indictment, which rendered his plea involuntary, and that the indictment was defective for relying on an older prior conviction. The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of relief. It found Lawson’s hearing testimony contradicted his claims of misadvice and that he had acknowledged the charges and minimum penalties when pleading guilty, so he failed to prove deficient performance or prejudice. The court also held the defective-indictment claim was procedurally barred because it was raised for the first time on appeal and lacked merit, as Mississippi law imposes no five-year limit on prior convictions used to enhance a fourth-offense DUI charge.
Kodie Marshall Parker was convicted by a Calhoun County jury of two counts of fourth-offense simple domestic violence and sentenced as a habitual offender to concurrent twenty-year terms. On appeal, he argued that the trial court erred by admitting evidence of his prior domestic-violence convictions under Mississippi Rules of Evidence 404(b) and 403, by allowing testimonial hearsay from prior victims and an uncharged offense that violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, and that cumulative error required reversal. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences. The court held that the prior incidents were properly admitted to prove motive, intent, and modus operandi, that the challenged statement was offered only for impeachment and therefore was not hearsay and raised no Confrontation Clause issue, and that the single identified error was harmless, leaving no cumulative error.
Joseph Moore appealed the Prentiss County Circuit Court’s denial of his motion for post-conviction relief, in which he claimed his guilty plea to tampering with evidence and felon-in-possession charges (as a habitual offender) was involuntary because his attorney had wrongly advised him that he faced up to forty-five years or life in prison. The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of relief. The court reasoned that the plea-hearing transcript showed Moore had been correctly informed of the actual penalties for the two charges to which he pled, that he had sworn under oath that he understood those penalties and was satisfied with counsel, and that any reference to longer sentences concerned separate pending indictments that were retired as part of the plea deal. These sworn statements and the record rebutted the supporting affidavit from Moore’s mother, so no evidentiary hearing was required and the claims of involuntariness and ineffective assistance lacked merit.
Kenneth Williams was convicted by a Holmes County jury of first-degree murder for fatally shooting his aunt, Faye Ann Noel, after a family dispute over his son's medical care, and was sentenced to life without parole. He raised an insanity defense at trial based on his history of mental illness but was found guilty. On appeal, Williams argued that the trial court erred by admitting hearsay statements from a police captain about what family members told him during the investigation and by permitting the State to comment on his choice not to testify. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence, holding that the admission of the challenged evidence and any related comments did not constitute reversible error.
A mother sued the Scott County School District on behalf of her minor son, alleging he was injured while acting as a spotter during a school football team’s maximum back-squat weightlifting session because coaches failed to use safety clamps on the barbell and did not properly supervise the activity. The circuit court granted summary judgment to the District, but the Court of Appeals reversed. The appellate court held that discretionary-function immunity did not apply, because the coaches’ choice not to use inexpensive safety clamps was ordinary negligence rather than a protected governmental policy decision, and that genuine issues of material fact existed regarding whether the District breached its duty of ordinary care to minimize foreseeable risks to students. The case was therefore remanded for further proceedings on the negligence claims.
Ace Joe Mallard filed a second post-conviction relief (PCR) motion in the Lamar County Circuit Court challenging his December 2020 guilty plea and 40-year sentence for second-degree murder. He argued that his plea was involuntary because the State lacked a factual basis and his attorney improperly induced the plea, and he renewed a prior claim that the sentencing order conflicted with the hearing transcript. The circuit court denied the motion as successive under the Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act, and the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed. The appellate court held that Mississippi Code Annotated § 99-39-23(6) bars successive PCR motions, that Mallard had already litigated one of the claims in his first PCR motion (which was denied and affirmed on appeal), and that he failed to establish any statutory exception—such as newly discovered evidence—because the fundamental-rights exception no longer applies and no qualifying new evidence was presented.