Jones v. State
| Decision Date | 03 February 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 45203,45203 |
| Citation | 218 So.2d 705 |
| Parties | Charles JONES v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
W. W. Dent, Collins, for appellant.
Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. and Laurence Y. Mellen, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
ON MOTION
Appellant, Charles Jones, was tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Covington County for the crime of felonious assault upon an officer. He was sentenced to serve a term of four years in the State Penitentiary and he perfected an appeal to this Court. When the record reached this Court the State filed a motion to dismiss his appeal for the reason that appellant had escaped from jail and was a fugitive from justice. Counsel for appellant answered the motion but did not controvert the fact that appellant had escaped jail and was a fugitive. On September 23, 1968, we passed this motion until the case was called on our calendar. On January 20, 1969, the State filed an amendment to its motion to which it attached an affidavit of the sheriff of Covington County which affidavit revealed that appellant had escaped jail and was still a fugitive from justice. On the following day the case was reached on our docket and when the case was called counsel for appellant appeared and presented argument on the motion. He did not refute the fact that appellant had escaped and was a fugitive.
The State recognizes that our existing rule of practice is that under these circumstances we will not hear the appeal on the merits but will remand the case to the files until such time as appellant is returned to custody. The State points out that under this practice an appellant may not be returned to custody until after a long lapse of time and if the appeal is then heard and the case is reversed it is sometimes impossible to retry such person because of the long delay due solely to the wrongful act of the appellant.
An examination of our cases dealing with this subject reveals that in Harding v. State, 96 Miss. 204, 50 So. 694 (1909), this Court considered a similar motion by the State. The Court in passing on the motion said:
We may say, in the outset, that almost the unanimous authority of the various courts of the Union, as shown by the adjudicated cases where this question has arisen, is in support of the position taken by the Assistant Attorney General, and if we were to follow authority from outside states we would be bound to sustain the motion. Many of the adjudicated cases, however, find their predicate in statutes requiring the court to dismiss in cases like this; but we think that this whole matter is merely a rule of practice, which, in the absence of a statute on the subject, each court may adopt for its own government. We therefore decline to adopt the rule followed by any other state, but adhere to our own practice, which has...
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D.C. v. D.C., No. 2006-CA-00320-SCT.
...So.2d 348, 349 (Miss.1975); Stauffacher v. State, 299 So.2d 188 (Miss.1974); Wheeler v. State, 249 So.2d 652 (Miss.1971); Jones v. State, 218 So.2d 705, 706 (Miss.1969). of an appeal "by an appellate court after a defendant has fled its jurisdiction serves an important deterrent function an......
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Bolton v. State, 57893
...escape from custody from the Regional Law Enforcement Complex at Hattiesburg. Derrick v. State, 406 So.2d 48 (Miss.1981), Jones v. State, 218 So.2d 705 (Miss.1969). ...
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D.C v. D.C., No. 2006-CA-00320-SCT (Miss. 2/28/2008), 2006-CA-00320-SCT.
...348, 349 (Miss. 1975); Stauffacher v. State, 299 So. 2d 188 (Miss. 1974); Wheeler v. State, 249 So. 2d 652 (Miss. 1971); Jones v. State, 218 So. 2d 705, 706 (Miss. 1969). Dismissal of an appeal "by an appellate court after a defendant has fled its jurisdiction serves an important deterrent ......
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Miller v. State, 48383
...fugitive. The State filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that Miller had escaped jail and was a fugitive. In Jones v. State, 218 So.2d 705 (Miss.1969) we adopted a rule providing for dismissal of cases where a person convicted of a felony escapes from custody pending appeal an......