William Myers

The case involved a group of citizens who sued the mayor and aldermen of Ruleville, Mississippi, over allegedly unauthorized garbage fee increases and the use of city equipment for private graves, first in chancery court and then in circuit court after the initial dismissal. The circuit court granted summary judgment to the defendants, but on appeal the Mississippi Court of Appeals addressed whether the suit was properly before it. The court held that the citizens' claims constituted an appeal from a municipal decision governed by Mississippi Code section 11-51-75, which requires filing within ten days of the board's action. Because the group failed to meet that deadline, both the chancery and circuit courts lacked jurisdiction regardless of how the claims were reframed or the parties sued, so the appellate court vacated the circuit court's judgment and dismissed the appeal.

procedure

In 1981, Mikel White was convicted by a jury of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Madison County Circuit Court, and he later pled guilty to related charges including aggravated assault and armed robbery. In 2008, White filed a pro se motion for post-conviction relief claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, which the circuit court dismissed as a successive writ. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal, holding that the motion was barred as successive under Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-23(6) and time-barred under § 99-39-5(2), that White failed to establish an exception such as newly discovered evidence, and that his ineffective-assistance allegations lacked sufficient support in the record to overcome the procedural bars.

criminal lawprocedure

Tony Ducksworth pleaded guilty in Jones County Circuit Court to forcible rape of a thirteen-year-old and received a sentence of thirty years, with twenty to serve and ten on post-release supervision. He then filed a motion for post-conviction relief alleging actual innocence, ineffective assistance of counsel, a defective indictment, and an invalid guilty plea; the circuit court denied the motion without an evidentiary hearing. On appeal, the court affirmed, holding that the valid guilty plea waived non-jurisdictional defects in the indictment, that Ducksworth's self-serving affidavit provided insufficient evidence to support his innocence or false-evidence claims, and that his attorney was not ineffective because the advice given was accurate and consent would not have been a defense given the victim's age. The court further found the plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered after Ducksworth was properly advised of his rights, the charge, and the possible penalties during the plea colloquy.

criminal lawprocedure

The case involved Robert Spurlock's 2008 conviction in Pike County Circuit Court for possession of at least one kilogram but less than five kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute, for which he received a fifteen-year sentence. Spurlock appealed the denial of his pretrial motion to suppress evidence seized from a vehicle during a police roadblock, arguing that the stop and search violated the Fourth Amendment. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, finding that officers had reasonable suspicion to set up the roadblock after receiving a suspicious phone call while executing a search warrant at a suspected buyer's home, and that probable cause supported the subsequent vehicle search based on an open beer container, a visible handgun, and the odor of marijuana. The court applied de novo review to the reasonable suspicion and probable cause determinations and upheld the investigatory stop as constitutional under established precedents.

criminal lawprocedure

In Jackson v. State, Bertrue Jackson was convicted of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after a shooting at a nightclub on January 1, 2008. He appealed the trial court's denial of his motion for JNOV or a new trial and its refusal to give a self-defense jury instruction. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions, finding that the evidence, including testimony that the victim was unarmed and not threatening Jackson, was sufficient to support the jury's rejection of self-defense, and that Jackson's argument regarding the jury instruction was unsupported by authority and thus procedurally barred.

criminal lawguns

The case involved Trenton Russell Sheffield Jr. and Mary Ann West Sheffield's divorce proceedings in Mississippi chancery court, where Mary Ann was granted a divorce on grounds of desertion and adultery and awarded permanent periodic alimony of $4,500 per month. Russell appealed, arguing that the alimony amount was excessive because the court failed to adequately account for the marital debts assigned to him in the equitable distribution of property. The court affirmed the lower court's decision, finding that the chancellor properly considered the Armstrong factors, including the parties' financial situations, earning capacities, and standard of living, and that there was no manifest error or abuse of discretion in the alimony award.

family lawproperty