The Mississippi Court of Appeals was short on opinions and long on “housekeeping” orders today. There were two opinions affirming criminal convictions and one chancery matter dealing with division of marital assets, alimony, and custody/visitation. One of the criminal appellants made a scrappy argument that Covid deprived him of due process during his trial.
Boyd v. State, 2021-KA-00066-COA (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction of two counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault stemming from a marijuana deal that went off the rails, holding that the defendant failed to meet his burden of proving ineffective assistance of counsel amounting to a violation of constitutional rights and that review of the record showed affirmatively that his ineffective assistance claims were without merit. The meritless issues raised involved the lack of a request for a jury instruction regarding imperfect self-defense manslaughter, the lack of objection to an investigator’s testimony regarding Facebook messages and the admission of those messages as exhibits, the lack of objection to the State’s cross-examination of the defendant regarding text messages, and the lack of objection to comments by the prosecutor during closing.
(9-1-0)
Walker v. State, 2021-KA-00483-COA (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction of sexual battery, holding that the evidence was sufficient even without “physical or scientific” evidence, that there was no due process violation in holding trial during the Covid pandemic, that the defendant was procedurally barred from arguing prosecutorial misconduct because he cited no evidence to support it, that there was no error in admitting testimony of two investigators, and that there was no miscarriage of justice in the prosecutor reading only a portion of a jury instruction during closing.
(10-0)
ADDENDUM – COVID and the Law: The defendant argued that fear of Covid created an urgency among the jurors that prevented them from faithfully discharging their sworn duties. This argument failed for want of evidence:
Garner v. Garner, 2021-CA-00038-COA (Civil – Domestic Relations)
Affirming the chancellor’s awards following an irreconcilable differences divorce between an OB/GYN and her husband, rejecting the ex-husband’s arguments on appeal and holding that his award of 48% of the martial property was the product of a proper Ferguson analysis, that there was no error awarding him rehabilitative alimony in lieu of more “accessible cash,” and that chancellor properly applied the Albright factors in awarding sole legal and physical custody to the mother.
(9-1-0)
Other Orders
McGee v. Neel Schaffer Engineers and Planners Inc., 2020-CA-01277-COA (denying rehearing)
Magee v. State, 2020-KA-01378-COA (denying rehearing)
Haynes v. State, 2020-KA-01397-COA (denying rehearing)
Camphor v. State, 2021-CP-00048-COA (recalling mandate and accepting motion for rehearing as timely)
Jones v. State, 2021-KA-01263-COA (dismissing motion to dismiss appeal as untimely and granting appellant’s motion to proceed out-of-time)
Lawrence v. State, 2021-TS-01324-COA (granting appellant’s motion to voluntarily dismiss appeal)
Wilson v. State, 2022-TS-00268-COA (dismissing appeal as untimely)
Harrell v. State, 2022-TS-00276-COA (denying appellant’s pro se motion to reinstate appeal)
Rice v. State, 2022-TS-00400-COA (affirming circuit court’s judgment)
Gutierrez v. State, 2022-TS-00459-COA (dismissing appeal for lack of appealable judgment)
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