New Resource for Attorneys and Pro Se Appellants/ees

Mississippi College School of Law Library with the hard work of yours truly now has the Mississippi Appellate Court Brief Archive. This archive started a couple of weeks ago and already has briefs for 41 different appeals. Our law school gets the briefs from the Clerk of the Supreme Court, just like Westlaw and Lexis do, but we are providing these public records for no charge in our effort for digital preservation of Mississippi legal resources. I hope these can be of use to many different groups including pro se's, attorneys, the press and the court.

Interesting little note

I read this earlier in the week on Behind the News, a Mississippi man has asked for a Stay of Mandate from the US Supreme Court regarding an alienation of affection claim. Just fun ready if you want a soap opera spin on the law. Behind the News also has a pdf of the writ.

I have to say I like the question of the case per the appellant: "This question involves the question of whether and under what circumstances as state may punish exercise of the right of intimate association."

Mississippi Innocence Project

Mississippi, starting this month now has an Innocence Project office/branch/division (not sure what it is technically called). Previously all Innocence Project cases for Mississippi were run out of the New Orleans office but now Mississippi is kind of on its own. This project while already having good seed money and having a home at the Ole Miss Law to cut on overhead had a big fundraiser last week with keynote speakers of John Grisham and Scott Turow (both very famous legal authors of fiction and non-fiction).

Here is a pretty good Jackson Free Press article talking about the new Mississippi Innocence Project.

Newest 5th Circuit Judge is Leslie Southwick from Mississippi

former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge Leslie Southwick was confirmed by the Senate last week to become the newest 5th Circuit Judge from Mississippi. We had previously blogged about Judge Southwicks nomination here and here and here. Even with a little commentary left in the comments by Congressman Al Green from Houston, Texas.

I think most of the editors of this blog are happy about the confirmation as we know Judge Southwick through his being an adjunct professor as the school 2 of us work at.

Phil Bryant rolls out anti-crime proposals

This was the title of a CL article today and while I am a Jamie Franks supporter I read it hoping that Bryant had some good ideas if he is the winner. Below are the ideas and how crazy I think some of them are and how I think some of them are valid.

Automatic life-sentences for second offense convictions of crack and crystal meth manufacturers and dealers. Why are we targeting these 2 drugs over other substances like cocaine or heroin? The thought process leaps to the fact these are the drug of choice for the poor and minorities more so than other drugs and those people aren't usually Republicans anyway. I'm not saying be soft of drugs (here at least) but seems to be demographic targeted. I also think the automatic life sentence thing is crazy (here is where you think I'm soft of crime). Drug offenders often are repeat offenders but a life sentence, get real, do you want to see a way to bust the budget have thousands of offenders with life sentences in 2050 who haven't had a drug in 40 years. Way to be a forward thinker Phil.

Doubling the penalties for those who commit crimes against children and the elderly. Now here is a group I want to target for stiffer penalties, doubling the penalties sounds good but I'd like to actually see what the penalties are now.

Adjudicating juvenile sex offenders as adults. I think this is an absolutely stupid rule. Juvenile sex offenders are a vast majority of the time no different than any other juvenile offender. They make stupid mistakes with their juvenile minds and they shouldn't be penalized more harshly because of the offense is called a sex offense. Also many of these cases are upset daddies wanting that damned kid put in jail for doing something to his daughter that she may or may not have wanted. I'm just saying that we don't need to take the discretion away from the judge, that is precisely why we have judges to make the call here to try as a juvenile or as an adult. The judge can move him up if he wants/deserves to.

A ban on the sale of drug paraphernalia in stores. Is this not already a law? If not a good idea. I need to look up what is called paraphernalia to learn more about this.

Integrating local law enforcement's fingerprint and identification systems. Another good idea except that I wish the local agencies would/could do this without prompting/requirement from the state level. I need to brush up on separation of powers in the Mississippi constitution.

Expanding the sex offender registry to include criminals already convicted of any crime against children or the elderly. What? Then it wouldn't be the sex-offender registry, it would be the sex-offender and some others registry at that point. Now if he wants a registry to keep up with these people then propose that. I am not saying a registry like this for new offenders would be constitutional, I'm not sold that the sex-offender registry is constitutional but don't mix the two, that is just dumb. What is even worse is that there is no way it is constitutional to impose this criminal penalty on those "already convicted" of these crimes. They have been sentenced, it's done, you can't up the sentence after the fact because a new law gets passed, it's called ex post facto Phil, c'mon.

Fully-funding the state crime lab. I hope this happens no matter who wins, no excuse for not having this.

Bootlegging under scrutiny in MS

Revenue agents are on the look out for bootleggers.

No, this isn't a line from the 50's or Smokey and the Bandit, it is from this week. Tennessee revenue agents are cracking down on those who come buy cigarettes and beer in Mississippi and bring them back to Tennessee. This is done because the wide discrepancy in sales/excise taxes on these "sin" items. Tennessee has a 44 cent higher tax on cigarettes which is apparently driving Tennessee residents south to Mississippi to buy their smokes in locations such as Olive Branch, Southaven and Corinth. Perhaps having a lower cigarette and alcohol tax does help entice out of state purchases and therefore more tax money for the state.

Mississippi's Newest Federal Judge

Sharion Aycock's nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi was approved yesterday fulfilling the active seat created when Glen Davidson moved to senior status last year.

For the best coverage I have found I recommend Behind the News, a blog from one of the journalist a the Daily Journal in Tupelo, MS. Focus in on October 4th as I have just like the blog due to the numerous posts on the subject there. Here is a link to her DOJ released resume.

Judge Aycock is a personal favorite of mine as she and I may be the only 2 graduates of Tremont High School in Tremont, MS who actually went on to become lawyers, not to mention she is a nice lady and from what I have heard a fair jurist.