Morea v. State
| Decision Date | 06 April 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 48969,48969 |
| Citation | 329 So.2d 527 |
| Parties | Charles MOREA v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Tommy B. Rogers, Collins, A. A. Calhoun, Mt. Olive, for appellant.
A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Vera Madel Speakes, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before GILLESPIE, ROBERTSON and LEE, JJ.
This case involves a conviction of murder and a life sentence. The facts reveal a tragedy arising out of a problem as old as the human race. No one, sensitive to the human condition, could read this record without a profound sympathy for the several people whose well-being fell victim to the tragedy. All that need be said concerning the merits of the appeal is that the two court-appointed lawyers did their very best with what they had to work with, but there is no assignment of error justifying discussion.
The statute provides for an opinion in cases where the defendant is sentenced to serve ten or more years in the penitentiary. Miss.Code Ann. § 9-3-41 (1972). This statute is deemed as advisory and is not to be construed as requiring needless opinions or opinions restating well established rules of law.
This Court said in Yazoo & M.V.R. Co. v. James, 108 Miss. 852, 67 So. 484 (1915), shortly before the number of judges was increased from three to six, that:
The time of a court, the docket of which is crowded to the extent that the docket of this court is, should not be wasted in the writing of opinions solely for the purpose of advising a litigant of the reasons upon which the court acted in deciding his case. Moreover, the burden of case law has become unbearable to both bench and bar, and the courts owe it both to themselves and to the bar to refrain from increasing this burden unnecessarily. 108 Miss. at 853, 67 So. at 484.
What the Court said in that case is equally applicable to the present problems facing this Court.
The Judges of this Court have, for a number of years, been concerned with the increase in the number and length of judicial opinions produced by this Court and other Courts throughout the country. And in 1972, this Court adopted Rule 43 of the Rules of the Supreme Court providing that no opinion will be written where the case is affirmed unless a majority of the justices deciding the case determines that a written opinion will add to the jurisprudence of this State. Thereafter, in 1975, Rule 43 was amended to provide for unpublished opinions in certain instances.
A distinguished committee of scholars has made a study of the matter of limiting publication of judicial opinions. Some of the salient points of the report, which was prepared for the Advisory Council for Appellate Justice, 1 are as follows:
But unlimited proliferation of published opinions constitutes a burden and a threat to a cohesive body of law. Even when the focus is confined to appellate courts, it is plain to every lawyer, every judge, and to most law students that many opinions are written that do not merit publication. Often the matter decided has no potential effect upon our knowledge of the law or its development, yet it results in a written opinion that takes the time and energy the judges...
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Saucier v. State
...686, 690 (Miss.1989); Ponthieux v. State, 532 So.2d 1239, 1248 (Miss.1988); Kennedy v. State, 531 So.2d 638 (Miss.1988); Morea v. State, 329 So.2d 527 (Miss.1976). VI. The judgment of the Circuit Court that Saucier stand convicted of the crime of armed robbery, together with the sentence im......
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Williams v. State
...discussion or reversal. Turner v. State, 573 So.2d 1340, 1343 (Miss.1990); Saucier v. State, 562 So.2d 1238 (Miss.1990); Morea v. State, 329 So.2d 527 (Miss.1976). Williams argues in the aggregate that these and the errors recited above require reversal, citing Collins v. State, 408 So.2d 1......
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General Motors Corp. v. Jackson, 90-CA-0824
...issues of law or fact. In such cases, we long have held that we are not obligated to publish a written opinion. Morea v. State, 329 So.2d 527, 527-528 (Miss.1976); Duncan v. Perkins, 192 So.2d 386 (Miss.1966); Batson v. Draughon, 11 So.2d 203 (Miss.1942); Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad......
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Meeks v. State
...or reversal. Williams v. State, 595 So.2d 1299, 1310 (Miss.1992); Turner v. State, 573 So.2d 1340, 1343 (Miss.1990); Morea v. State, 329 So.2d 527 (Miss.1976). CONVICTION OF CAPITAL MURDER AND SENTENCE OF LIFE IN PRISON AFFIRMED; CONVICTION OF BURGLARY AND SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS, THE SENTENC......