Facial tattoo did not render photo lineup inadmissible
Facts In 2010, Justin Stewart and an accomplice went to a Fred’s store on North State Street in Jackson, Mississippi. Stewart purchased a pair of Hanes undergarments with cash. When the clerk, LaQuinta Nelson, opened the cash register to give Stewart his change, Stewart attempted to grab the money in the register. Nelson quickly closed […]
Court throws out Miranda rights that were not adequately explained to juvenile
Facts In 2010, JS, who was thirteen years old, told police that her neighbor Toney Jennings, sixteen years old, had raped her. When police arrived, Jennings shoved them and ran and was then arrested for assaulting a police officer. Jennings was Mirandized, waived, and made a written confession regarding the rape. Miranda was read to […]
Voluntary conversation with police leads to arrest
Facts In 2012, Master Sergeant John Harris and Communications Officer Keishawn McDonald of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department were patrolling several Canton, Mississippi apartment complexes after the police department received complaints from the apartment management of loitering and possible drug deals occurring on the premises. Harris testified he pulled into Madison Heights apartment complex and noticed […]
Subject does not need to be explicitly told that he can stop interrogation at any time
Facts In 2010, Cheryl McFarland was on the phone with her husband when she arrived home and saw a strange red or maroon car in the carport. She then observed that the house door had been kicked in and two men came running out. One with dreadlocks came out first, choked her, and threw her […]
Answering a subject truthfully is not coercion for Miranda purposes
Facts In 2011, Mickey Johnson, his fianceé Chiquita Clay, and Gamilla Truss were in Johnson’s home when law enforcement officers arrived to execute a search warrant. During the search, officers located a plastic bottle containing crack cocaine. Following the search, the officers arrested Johnson and transported him and Clay – whom they did not arrest […]
Even if officer lacks reasonable suspicion for traffic stop, fruit of poisonous tree does not extend to new crime of evasion
Facts In 2008, Robert Williams was driving east on I-220 in Madison County, Mississippi, when Madison County Sheriff’s Deputies saw his vehicle cross the fog line on the right side of the road. Williams was driving a rental car listed in someone else’s name and appeared extremely nervous. He denied having any drugs in the car […]