The Mississippi Court of Appeals handed down two opinions today. Both are direct criminal appeals. I will be out of the office on Thursday, so I’ll include this week’s Mississippi Supreme Court decisions in a post next week.
Smith v. State, 2023-KA-00703-COA (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction of of burglary of a dwelling and possession of a weapon as a felon, holding that the verdict was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence where the jury was presented with two different narratives of the altercation and performed its duty to weight the credibility of the competing evidence.
(10-0)
Ellzey v. State, 2022-KA-00797-COA (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction of three counts of fondling, holding that the trial court did not err in denying the motion to quash the indictment, in finding that an alleged statement by a juror regarding the incompetency of a government agency did not constitute impermissible outside influence, in limiting cross-examination of a witness, in not excluding or limiting counseling records under the plain error doctrine, in overruling the defendant’s objection to allegedly speculative testimony, in overruling a hearsay objection because the testimony was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted, in overruling an objection to other allegedly speculative testimony (or committed harmless error), in overruling an objection to testimony that allegedly vouched for the victim’s credibility, or in not sua sponte objecting to statements in closing argument, and dismissing the ineffectively assistance of counsel claim without prejudice, holding that there could be no cumulative error where there was at most one harmless error, and holding that other issues were waived for failure to raise them in the trial court.
(9-1-0: McCarty specially concurred, joined by Westbrooks and McDonald)
Other Orders
- Martin v. Arceneaux, 2022-CA-01035-COA (denying rehearing)
- Smith v. Mitchell, 2023-CA-00259-COA (denying rehearing)
- Carpenter v. State, 2023-KA-00580-COA (denying rehearing)
- Shipp v. State, 2023-KA-00655-COA (denying rehearing)
Mississippi Appeals Blog 