Miranda waiver does not need to be in writing
Facts In 1978, Becky Roberts’s body was found in the house trailer she shared with her husband at the Showtown East drive-in theater in Pearl, Mississippi. Becky had sustained two gunshot wounds to her head, one through the left eye and one through the forehead, a slashed throat, and several stab wounds, one which had […]
Miranda doesn’t require the subject be advised of his rights every time there is a pause in questioning
Facts Mary Elizabeth Dill (“Liz”) was abducted from her home sometime during the night in 1996. Her husband, Bryan Dill, reported her missing the following morning. Three days later, her mutilated and partially decomposed body was found on a dirt road in rural Lowndes County, Mississippi. The State concluded that Liz had died as a […]
Telling the D.A. that a subject cooperated is discouraged but it takes more to get confession overturned
Facts On February 19, 1997, four year old J.G. slept overnight with her grandparents. J.G. slept in the bed with her grandmother, while her grandfather, Albert Mullins, slept in a separate room. The next morning, after the grandmother had gone to work, Mullins summonsed J.G. to his room. According to J.G., Mullins pulled down her […]
After being mirandized, subject initiated incriminating conversation with police
Facts On New Year’s Eve 1997, Officer Clyde Whitfield of the Amory Police Department saw Dameon Hampton, a passenger in a car being driven by George Thompson, leave his car, fire a gun, then get back into his car. After Hampton and Thompson drove away, Officer Whitfield pursued and stopped the car. Upon the stopping, […]
Officer did not provide enough details concerning his knowledge about subject’s suspended license
Facts In 1997, while on patrol, Water Valley Police Officer Rick McCuan observed a vehicle being driven by Jimmie Boyd. Through his work as the court officer for the Water Valley municipal court system, McCuan was aware that Boyd’s driver’s license had been suspended in 1989. Suspecting that Boyd was operating a vehicle with a […]
constructive possession found when the car smelled strongly of unburned marijuana
Facts In 1996, Timothy Blissett was traveling northbound on I-55 in Lincoln County, Mississippi, when he was stopped by Shawn Brown, a narcotics agent with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, for following a vehicle too closely and for changing lanes without signaling. As he approached the vehicle Brown smelled a strong, overpowering odor of a […]