Mississippi Lawyer Blog

In today's Clarion Ledger, Ed Peters' grand jury testimony was discussed. Peters was the long time Hinds County District Attorney whose office prosecuted all felony crimes in the county. After retiring as a prosecutor, Peters then went into private practice. He was hired by Dickie Scruggs who had a case pending in front of Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Bobby DeLaughter, a former long time assistant under Peters. (Peters and DeLaughter are in the picture to the left).

According to Peters' sworn testimony, he visited privately with DeLaughter on several occasions to discuss Scruggs' ongoing case. Peters was trying to influence DeLaughter to find in favor of Scruggs. This type of communication with a judge, known as ex parte communication, is prohibited by court rules. Peters also testified that DeLaughter longed to be a federal judge and that former Senator Trent Lott called DeLaughter to tell him his brother-in-law Scruggs had suggested his name for a federal judge position. Even thought DeLaughter didn't get the position, he was advised that Scruggs had put his name up for consideration.

We all know the rest of the story. Scruggs and his attorneys were caught up in this judicial bribery case as well as one in LaFayette County. Several lawyers and one judge (DeLaughter) plead guilty and were sent to prison. Of course, Peters somehow avoided a conviction by cutting a deal to testify against the others, including DeLaughter, with whom he said he had a "father son relationship". Gee, thanks Dad.

I started practicing in 1994 at a time when both Peters and DeLaughter were two of the top dog prosecutors in the state. I tried my first murder case against DeLaughter in February 1995 (my client was convicted of a lesser included offense). Both Peters and DeLaughter prosecuted Byron De La Beckwith, a case which my partner Merrida Coxwell was appointed by the court to defend Beckwith. Merrida also had several other high profile cases against Peters and DeLaughter over the years. Peters and DeLaughter seemingly had a habit of hiding favorable evidence which should have been turned over to the defendants. Most of the cases were overturned for these discovery violations on appeal with Beckwith being the notable exception. (Let's face it, no elected judge was going to vote to overturn Beckwith's conviction). The Mississippi Supreme Court even scolded Peters' office for repeated discovery violations.

When the Scruggs bribery scandal broke out, my mind immediately began to think that this is not the first time this has happened in Hinds County. How many other cases, civil and criminal, have been compromised? We know that Peters and DeLaughter have been accused of running a similar scam in the Eaton v. Frisby case in which it was claimed that Eaton hired Peters to influence DeLaughter. How many other cases were there? How many criminal defendants have been denied a fair trial by similar tactics? Did Peters and/or DeLaughter have similar ex parte communications with judges when they were prosecutors? Well, we'll probably never know because the investigation into these shady tactics went no further. It's as if no one really wanted to know.

Continue reading "Was Ex-Hinds County DA Peters Corrupt while he was a Prosecutor?" »

Unless you have been living under a rock, I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Casey Anthony trial by now. The facts are well-known by most: A young mother failed to report her two year old child's disappearance for 30 days. She lied to police on several occasions about her child's whereabouts and other important things. Six months later, the little girl's bones are found. The police arrested the mother and charged her with 1st degree murder, a death penalty offense in Florida.

National attention surrounded the month long trial. The prosecutors utilized state of the art, never before used forensic testimony in an attempt to convict Casey. However, the State could not prove how Caylee died and the defense offered several alternate theories. The defense pointed the finger at Casey Anthony's father and alleged that Caylee Anthony accidentally drowned.

Apparently, the jury was swayed by something as they returned not guilty verdicts on the most serious charges and only convicted Casey of 4 misdemeanor charges of lying to the police. Media and social outrage ensued. How could the jury acquit her after all the evidence against her?!?! Where is the justice?!? Similar outrage was felt after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and Ron Goldman and at least one major newspaper has labeled Casey as the "new OJ". L.A. rioted when police officers were acquitted of assaulting Rodney King.

So, is our jury system broken? As a lawyer for nearly 17 years, I have felt disappointment when a jury does not find for my client. However, I would never go so far as to say that the system is broken. What we have to understand, and learn, from high profile trials like Casey Anthony and OJ Simpson is that the information that we get is filtered through the media. The media decides what to report to us. The media thrives on ratings and selling newspapers (like anyone reads those anymore). The media has an agenda which they are pushing and this is quite different from the actual evidence which a jury hears in a court of law.

The vast majority of Americans think that the Casey Anthony trial, OJ trial, and Rodney King trial are accurate representations of our legal system. They are not. The vast majority of persons charged with crimes are found guilty. The media only reports on the high profile cases because the other cases don't bring the ratings.

It is easy for us as "arm chair quarterbacks" to second guess a jury the way we second guess our favorite college football coaches. However, this jury sat through ALL the relevant testimony for a month and a half. They had access to all the relevant evidence which you and I did not see. The jury took an oath to follow the law and not be swayed by sympathy and prejudice.

Continue reading "Casey Anthony, OJ, and Rodney King: Is our Jury System Broke?" »

There was yet another article in the national news about two (2) men who were wrongfully convicted of a serious. violent crime that they did not commit. These two men were convicted and were serving life sentences for a rape and murder. The details of the crimes and their freedom was printed in The Wall Street Journal article titled, DNA Evidence Leads to Exonerations in Mississippi, 30 Years Later . Both were African American and they were freed after DNA evidence proved they were not the attackers. Another man has been found guilty of the crimes. The cases were also reported in the local newspaper in Hattiesburg, The Hattiesburg American, in an article titled Nation could see 260th exoneration because of DNA.

This should be very disturbing to the people of Mississippi and all over the United States. This is not an isolated set of cases. There were two (2) men in North Mississippi who were cleared by DNA evidence. Both stayed in jail for over twenty (20) years. Coxwell & Associates worked on two (2) cases of wrongful convictions. One was in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, and one in the Delta. In both cases the men were determined not to have committed the crime. Unfortunately, in both cases the men had spent over fifteen (15) years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

Any concerned citizen who loves liberty, freedom, and justice needs to wonder and ask why there are so many serious, wrongful convictions. Merrida Coxwell, the managing partner of Coxwell & Associates, served on a task force that created the new DNA testing Legislation (law). This new law has allows people who are in prison to ask for DNA testing. Wrongful convictions should not be accepted or tolerated. Just imagine what it must be like to sit in jail for a decade or more knowing you did not commit the crime. Can you even put yourself in that position?

I am going to tell it like it is. All of the cases that I know about involved African American men who were convicted of crimes that they did not commit. No doubt across the country there are cases involving other races, but in Mississippi each of the cases I can think of involved people of color. Steps must to take by the Legislature to see that wrongful convictions are minimized. It is unfortunate that in many of these cases the prosecutors have fought efforts to prove that these men were innocent. It makes one wonder if the justice system might be a little more concerned with statistics rather than justice!

These cases of wrongful convictions also involve false confessions. Does that surprise you? Ask yourself why would a person charged with a violent crime would give a false confession? I will try to help explain how I see this issue in a later Post which will be entitled FALSE CONFESSIONS.

Continue reading "Wrongfully Convicted Of A Crime In Mississippi" »