Jackson v. State , 2008–CT–00074–SCT.

• Decision Date: 28 July 2011
• Docket Number: No. 2008–CT–00074–SCT.,2008–CT–00074–SCT.
• Citation: 67 So.3d 725
• Parties: Robert H. JACKSONv.STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

67 So.3d 725

Robert H. JACKSON

v.STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2008–CT–00074–SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 28, 2011.

Robert H. Jackson, appellant, pro se.David McCarty, attorneys for appellant.Office of the Attorney General by John R. Henry, Jr., attorney for appellee.EN BANC.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI

WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. The motion for rehearing filed by the State is granted. The previous opinion is withdrawn, and this opinion is substituted therefor.

¶ 2. Since his 1979 conviction for capital murder, Robert H. Jackson has filed multiple, unsuccessful motions and applications for post-conviction relief (PCR). The trial court dismissed Jackson's most recent motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. We granted Jackson's pro se petition for writ of certiorari. We conclude that the trial court erroneously dismissed Jackson's PCR motion, so we reverse and remand.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3. Robert H. Jackson was indicted for capital murder for killing Josephine Todd during the burglary of her home in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on June 4, 1979.¹ Soon after his arrest, Jackson gave a statement to police, detailing the events surrounding the burglary. Jackson stated that he “had entered Mrs. Todd's Apartment, tied her hands, placed a cloth over her mouth, looked through the drawers in her apartment, had found some money, took Mrs. Todd's purse, removed [the] restraints from her hands and pulled [the] gag off [her] mouth and left through [the] front door of [the] apartment.” Mrs. Todd died from asphyxiation. The State indicted Jackson as a habitual offender. The indictment charged Jackson as follows:

The Grand Jurors of the State of Mississippi, elected, summoned, empaneled, sworn, and charged to inquire in and for the body of Warren County, State of Mississippi, at the term aforesaid, in the name and by the authority of the State of Mississippi, upon their oaths present that ROBERT H. JACKSON, late of the County aforesaid, on or before the 4th day of June, A.D., 1979, with force and arms, in the County aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of this Court did feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, kill and murder Josephine Todd, a human being, with or without the design of the said Robert H. Jackson to effect the death of the said Josephine Todd, at a time when the said Robert H. Jackson was then engaged in the commission of the crime of Burglary of the dwelling house of the said Josephine Todd, contrary to the provisions of Section 97–3–19(2)(e) of the Mississippi Code of 1972, as amended. [C]ontrary to the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi.Jackson pleaded guilty to this charge, and he was sentenced as a habitual offender to life in prison without parole, pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 99–19–81 (1978).²

¶ 4. Pursuant to Mississippi's Uniform Post–Conviction Collateral Relief Act (UPCCRA), Jackson filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence on April 21, 1986. See Miss.Code Ann. § 99–39–5(1) (Rev.2007). Jackson complained that his court-appointed attorneys had inadequately investigated the previous convictions on which the habitual-offender portion of the indictment was based, and that his guilty plea had been induced involuntarily because his attorneys had assured him he would, under a prearranged plea agreement, plead to the reduced charge of manslaughter.³ In the trial-court proceedings on Jackson's 1986 motion for PCR, the State asserted the three-year statute of limitations under Mississippi Code Section 99–39–5(2). The trial court dismissed Jackson's 1986 PCR motion without a hearing based on the procedural bar of the statute of limitations and “on the basis of its merit.”

¶ 5. On appeal, this Court held that the three-year limitation period of the UPCCRA operates prospectively. Jackson v. State, 506 So.2d 994, 994–95 (Miss.1987) (“ Jackson I ”) (citing Odom v. State, 483 So.2d 343 (Miss.1986)).⁴ Therefore, we found that the trial court clearly was in error for applying the time bar to Jackson. We reversed the trial court's dismissal of Jackson's 1986 PCR motion and remanded the case for development of the facts of Jackson's substantive claim, either through review of the transcript of the guilty plea, if sufficient, or through an evidentiary hearing.

¶ 6. Upon remand, the trial court issued an order on January 27, 1989, either dismissing or denying Jackson's PCR motion. Jackson appealed that order to this Court, which affirmed without opinion on October 24, 1990. Jackson v. State, 568 So.2d 1212 (Miss.1990) (“ Jackson II ”). Jackson filed another PCR motion in the trial court in 1993. The trial court either dismissed or denied this motion as well, issuing its order on February 26, 1993. Jackson appealed, and on December 7, 1995, this Court affirmed, once again without opinion. Jackson v. State, 665 So.2d 1356 (Miss.1995) (“ Jackson III ”).

¶ 7. In 1997, this Court decided State v. Berryhill, 703 So.2d 250 (Miss.1997). We relied on two previous cases to hold that when a person is indicted for capital murder predicated on burglary, the indictment must state the underlying offense that comprised the burglary.⁵ Berryhill, 703 So.2d at 254–56. See Lambert v. State, 462 So.2d 308, 311 (Miss.1984); Moore v. State, 344 So.2d 731, 735 (Miss.1977).

¶ 8. On March 29, 1999, Jackson filed an application in this Court for leave to proceed in the trial court with a new PCR motion (No. 1999–M–00547). The basis of Jackson's proposed PCR motion was that newly discovered evidence could raise a reasonable doubt as to whether Jackson had, in fact, caused Josephine Todd's death. On August 6, 1999, a panel of this Court denied Jackson's application, finding that “[a] prior application was denied by this Court in case no. 89–K[P]–00272.” So we held simply that “Jackson's present motion is barred as a successive writ pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 99–39–27(9).”

¶ 9. On January 17, 2002, Jackson again sought leave of this Court to pursue post-conviction relief in the trial court (No. 2001–M–00864). In Jackson's proposed PCR motion, attached to his application, Jackson argued for the first time that Berryhill is an intervening decision of this Court which invalidates his indictment, or at least the capital portion thereof. Jackson also argued that his indictment was defective because it failed to include the phrase “without the authority of law,” a required element of capital murder. Without addressing the substantive merits of Jackson's claims, a panel of this Court denied Jackson's application on June 6, 2002, finding that “the petition [was] procedurally barred as a successive writ pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 99–39–27(9).”

¶ 10. On March 1, 2004, Jackson filed a document entitled “Petition for Extraordinary Circumstances Review,” which this Court treated as another application for permission to seek post-conviction relief in the trial court (No. 2003–M–01858). Jackson again argued that this Court should apply Berryhill and invalidate his indictment and that the indictment was otherwise defective for omitting the phrase “without the authority of law.” Jackson also argued that this Court unconstitutionally and unreasonably had applied the successive-writ procedural bar to his 1999 and 2002 applications. Once again, however, without addressing its merits, this Court denied Jackson's application on July 19, 2004, finding it, “like others filed previously by Jackson, [to be] barred as a successive writ pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 99–39–27(9).” ⁶

¶ 11. Undeterred, Jackson filed the instant PCR motion in the circuit court on November 14, 2007. In this motion, Jackson again argued that his capital-murder indictment was constitutionally insufficient under Berryhill and because it omitted the phrase “without the authority of law.” Based on this Court's dispositions of Jackson's 2002 and 2004 applications, the circuit court dismissed Jackson's 2007 PCR motion on December 4, 2007, finding it to be barred as a successive writ. Jackson appealed on January 7, 2008, and the case was assigned to the Court of Appeals.⁷

¶ 12. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's dismissal of Jackson's latest PCR motion, explaining that “Jackson's motion is procedurally barred as an impermissible subsequent attempt to obtain post-conviction relief, as Jackson has failed to show that it falls within any of the statutory exceptions to the successive-writ bar.” Jackson v. State, 67 So.3d 781, 782 (Miss.Ct.App. 2009). The Court of Appeals also held that “the circuit court was without jurisdiction to entertain Jackson's motion absent leave of the supreme court, which Jackson did not obtain[,]” because this Court had “last exercised jurisdiction in the case.” Id. (citing Perry v. State, 759 So.2d 1269, 1270 (Miss.Ct.App.2000); Miss.Code Ann. § 99–39–7 (Rev.2007)).

¶ 13. Jackson filed his petition for a writ of certiorari, arguing that this Court had jurisdiction to determine his PCR motion and that his motion was excepted from procedural bars. The State did not respond to Jackson's petition. We granted the petition, and in our original opinion, we reversed Jackson's capital-murder conviction. We held (1) that the trial court did have jurisdiction to consider Jackson's 2007 PCR motion but that this Court could reach the merits of properly filed PCR motions that had been dismissed or denied; (2) that his motion was excepted from procedural bars; (3) that Berryhill voided the capital portion of Jackson's indictment; and (4) that his indictment did not charge simple murder or manslaughter, since it omitted the words “without the authority of law.” Finding that the indictment charged no crime, we remanded without prejudice to the State's right to proceed with a properly drawn indictment.

¶ 14. The State filed a motion for rehearing, arguing (1) that the trial court rather than this Court should...