Tag: Batson

Mississippi Supreme Court Decisions of June 13, 2024

The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down four opinions today. Three of the opinions are direct criminal appeals, and one of those involved a reverse Batson challenge. The fourth opinion was a dec/injunction action against MDCPS.

Morris v. State, 2023-KA-00546-SCT (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction for statutory rape, holding that the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction and that the verdict was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.
(9-0)

Turner v. State, 2023-KA-00074-SCT (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction of kidnapping after the defendant failed to return her daughter to the child’s lawful custodian, holding that there was sufficient evidence to support the conviction.
(9-0)

Smith v. State, 2021-CT-01003-SCT (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming conviction of first-degree murder having granted cert on the issue of whether the case should be remanded for another Batson hearing, holding that the trial court did not err in disallowing two of the defendant’s strikes after reverse Batson challenges.
(6-3: King dissented, joined by Kitchens and joined in part by Ishee)

Jones v. Miss. Dept. of Child Protective Services, 2022-SA-01234-SCT (Civil – State Boards and Agencies)
Affirming the chancellor’s decisions granting MDCPS a judgment on the pleadings in an injunctive and declaratory action against MDCPS’s policy not to investigate allegations of abuse at school, holding that Mississippi law (Mississippi Code Section 43-21-353 (Rev. 2023), specifically) does not require the MDCPS to investigate a report that a child has been abused at school.
(6-1-2: Randolph concurred in the result only without writing; Kitchens dissented, joined by King)

Other Orders

  • Rules for Court Reporters, 89-R-99021-SCT (appointing Leslie D. King, Candace O’Barr Jones, Kati Vogt, and Latanya Allen as members of the Board of Certified Court Reporters for two-year terms from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026)
  • Haverscome v. State, 2022-CT-00391-SCT (denying cert)
  • Brown v. State, 2022-CT-00446-SCT (denying cert)
  • Gilmer v. Biegel, 2022-CP-00528-SCT (one order denying cert; granting motion for fees)
  • Moore v. Miss. Farm Bureau Casualty Ins. Co., 2022-CT-00555-SCT (denying cert)
  • Gregory Meridian Acquisition, LLC v. McFarland, 2022-CT-00580-SCT (denying cert)
  • Wiggins v. Southern Securities Group, LLC, 2024-TS-00251 (accepting request for interlocutory appeal as notice of appeal)
  • Mi Pueblo Mexican Restaurant, LLC v. Breakfast Cove, LLC, 2024-CA-00271 (granting leave to proceed in the trial court with Miss. R. Civ. P. 60 motion but denying stay request)

Hand Down Page

Mississippi Court of Appeals Decisions of April 11, 2023

The Mississippi Court of Appeals handed down six opinions today (eight, if you count each of the three PCR cases that were consolidated). The list starts off PCR heavy, but then we pick up a reverse-Batson/criminal appeal, a personal injury/borrowed servant case, and a defamation case.

Simoneaux v. State, 2022-CP-00532-COA (Civil – PCR)
Affirming the circuit court’s order dismissing the plaintiff’s third PCR motion, holding that there was no error in finding that the PCR motion was successive and time-barred.
(9-0: McCarty did not participate)

Holliday v. State, 2022-CA-00149-COA (Civil – PCR)
Affirming denial of PCR motion, holding that the circuit court did not err in denying the petition claiming ineffective assistance of counsel based on the plaintiff’s knowing and voluntary guilty plea.
(9-0: Smith did not participate)

Blackmore v. State, 2021-CA-00743-COA (Civil – PCR)
consolidated with
White v. State, 2021-CA-00744 COA
consolidated with
Traxler v. State, 2021-CA-00769-COA
Affirming denials of motions in three separate cases arguing that the plaintiffs’ classifications as violent offenders was unconstitutional, holding that Tenth Amendment reserved to Mississippi the right to define DUI as a crime of violence and that enactment of section 97-3-2 superseded the holding in Smith v. State, 942 So. 2d 308 (Miss. Ct. App. 2006), expressly overruling Smith.
(9-0: Emfinger did not participate)

Smith v. State, 2021-KA-01003-COA (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming first-degree murder conviction, holding that the trial court did not err in returning four jurors back to the venire after a “reverse-Batson challenge” by the State or in admitting autopsy photos.
(7-3: McCarty concurred in part and dissented in part, joined by Westbrooks and McDonald; Westbrooks and McDonald also concurred in part and dissented in part without separate written opinion)

Dawson v. Burgs, 2021-CA-01038-COA (Civil – Personal Injury)
Affirming summary judgment in favor of the defendants where the plaintiff was allegedly injured by a coworker, holding the plaintiff (an employee of the defendant temporary staffing agency) was a “borrowed servant” of Dollar General and therefore the alleged tortfeasor (who was an employee of Dollar General) was immune for suit under the MWCA which precluded his direct liability and the staffing agency’s vicarious liability.
(8-2: Westbrooks dissented joined by McDonald)

NOTE – This is a good reminder that substance prevails over form prevail when classifying someone as an “employee” or “independent contractor”:

Fagan v. Faulkner, 2022-CA-00130-COA (Civil – Torts)
Reversing bench trial verdict for the plaintiff in a defamation case, holding that an obscene outburst by a surgeon directed at a nurse were not actionable as slander per se because the evidence did not show the surgeon spoke them in relation to the nurse’s capability to perform her job.
(6-4: McCarty dissented, joined by Carlton, Westbrooks, and McDonald; McDonald also dissented without separate written opinion)

Other Orders

Thomas v. State, 2021-CP-00060-COA (granting motion to recall mandate)

Rhea v. Career General Agency, Inc., 2021-CA-00580-COA (denying rehearing)

Davis v. State, 2021-KA-00759-COA (denying rehearing)

Hull v. State, 2022-CP-00088-COA (recalling mandate and accepting petition for rehearing as timely)

Hand Down List

Mississippi Supreme Court Decisions of June 23, 2022

The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down two opinions today in criminal cases. One is an appeal of a DUI conviction where the defendant refused a breathalyzer test. The other was certiorari review of the Court of Appeals’ remedy for a Batson error by the trial court. The Supreme Court also published an en banc order that garnered some national attention when it was entered on Tuesday.

Bullen v. State, 2021-KM-01081-SCT (Criminal – Misdemeanor/DUI)
Affirming a conviction of DUI (second offense), holding that substantial evidence supported the conviction despite the defendant’s refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test because there was also testimony that the defendant’s pupils were contracted (after some confusion by the officer who initially testified that they were dilated), his truck smelled of alcohol, and he admitted to consuming more than one beer and intentionally driving into a flooded area requiring extraction by the fire department. The Supreme Court also held that the circuit judge did not err in considering the defendant’s refusal to submit to breathalyzer tests.
(9-0.)

NOTE – The Supreme Court has never addressed the issue of whether “smell alone could support a DUI charge.” The Court declined to do so in this case because this conviction was based on other evidence. The right case may be set up for cert on this issue.

Miles v. State, 2019-CT-00895-SCT (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming the Court of Appeals affirming in part and reversing in part the circuit court’s judgment, holding that the Court of Appeals applied the appropriate remedy for the circuit court’s “imprecise and incomplete” Batson analysis (specifically, the burden-shifting process after challenge of a peremptory strike) which was to remand to the trial court to conduct a hearing to complete the second and third steps of the Batson analysis for three of the challenged members of the venire.
(Justice King concurred in the result only without separate written opinion.)

Other Orders

Powers v. State, 2017-DR-00696-SCT (holding that the plaintiff has no right to competency in post-conviction proceedings and denying his motion to stay his execution without prejudice)

Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development v. General Reinsurance Corp., 2020-CT-00761-SCT (denying cert)

Hand Down List