Rankin v. State, 91-KA-0446
| Decision Date | 24 March 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-KA-0446,91-KA-0446 |
| Citation | 636 So.2d 652 |
| Parties | Johnny Lewis RANKIN v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
John S. Knowles, III, Brantley and Knowles, Jackson, for appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Deirdre McCrory, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN and SMITH, JJ.
I. INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Johnny Lewis Rankin was indicted by the Yazoo County Grand Jury for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Following a trial on the merits, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Rankin was sentenced to twenty-five (25) years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with fifteen (15) years suspended on five (5) years good behavior, to run consecutive to cause No. 7056. A $10,000.00 fine was also imposed. Rankin subsequently filed a motion for new trial or in the alternative for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which was overruled by the trial judge. Feeling aggrieved, Rankin perfected his appeal to this Court, requesting review of the following issues:
A. Whether giving the case to the jury at 7:08 p.m. was improper and prejudicial as it did not give the jury sufficient time to make an adequate, fair, and unhurried decision on this case; and
B. Whether the verdict of the jury was against the overwhelming weight of the credible evidence and was the result of bias, passion, or prejudice against the defendant.
After a thorough review of the law and the facts in the record before us, this Court is of the opinion that there is no merit to either of these assignments of error. However, a subsequently filed document raises an issue which warrants discussion.
II. THE FACTS
Stacy Brumfield, who had known Johnny "Catfish" Rankin for three or four years, was at Smitty's Stop and Shop on November 10, 1989, when an altercation ensued between Brumfield and Rankin. Brumfield saw that Rankin had a dark-handled pistol in the back of his pants, and said he threatened her with it. Brumfield ran into Smitty's and used the telephone to report the incident to police. Brumfield recalled Rankin was wearing a hooded khaki jacket or coat at the time of the incident, which covered his gun, and which she had seen him wearing on other occasions at Smitty's. The police directed Brumfield to the Sheriff's Department because this was within the county jurisdiction.
Deputy Jackson of the Yazoo County Sheriff's Department was off duty on November 10, 1989, but Deputy Gilmore asked Jackson to accompany him to Smitty's in response to Brumfield's complaint because Jackson knew Rankin and could identify him. When the deputies arrived at Smitty's 1 the crowd of about ten to twenty-five people dispersed. Jackson pointed out Rankin to Gilmore, describing Rankin as the man in the brown-tan jacket. Rankin was in Smitty's parking lot beside the guard rails. When Jackson pointed him out to Gilmore, Rankin took off his jacket, laid it on the guard rail, and sat on it. 2 Jackson and Gilmore then noticed the handgun in the small of Rankin's back. The Deputies asked Rankin to put his hands on the patrol car and arrested him for carrying a concealed weapon. Rankin was put in the back seat of the patrol car and his jacket was placed on the front seat before the deputies brought Rankin to the county jail.
Once at the jail, Jackson, in Gilmore's presence, searched Rankin's person and the pockets of his jacket. In the left coat pocket, Jackson found $654.00 cash and 112 rocks of crack cocaine. 3 In Rankin's right front pant pocket, Jackson found $1,053.00 cash. Rankin was then placed under arrest for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute.
Four witnesses testified, one equivocally, that Rankin was not wearing or carrying a coat on the day of his arrest. 4 Jimmy Fleming, Chief of Police in Yazoo City, had known Rankin "[q]uite a while." Fleming said Rankin owned a jacket identical to the one admitted into evidence at trial. Fleming remembered it because Rankin also had a matching hat, which he had worn with the jacket on several occasions, prompting Fleming to dub him "Sherlock Holmes."
Rankin said he had not worn a coat on November 10, 1989, and denied that the coat marked Exhibit 1 was his. According to Rankin, as soon as the officers arrived at Smitty's, before he knew why they were there, he voluntarily told them he had a gun.
Once at the station, Rankin said the officers searched the coat out of his presence. When they asked whether the money found in the coat belonged to him, Rankin said it did not, and denied ownership of the coat. 5 He also told the officers the rocks of cocaine were not his. Rankin said he had $1,700.00 or $1,800.00 on him, in his pant pocket, because he was planning to buy some supplies to repair his house and store. 6 Rankin said the cash in his pant pocket the day he was arrested came from a $1,900.00 cashier's check Rankin had obtained, then cashed on November 6, 1989, because the building supply company wouldn't take a cashier's check.
III. PRO SE MOTION
Eleven months after Rankin's brief was filed with this Court, he requested from the Clerk of this Court the trial transcript in this cause in order to prepare a supplemental appeal brief. Two months later, Rankin filed documents captioned motion for leave to proceed in trial court, motion for post-conviction collateral relief, petition for post-conviction collateral relief, and memorandum brief in support of his post-conviction petition.
Rankin's motion for leave to proceed in trial court was purportedly filed pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 99-39-27. His petition for post-conviction collateral relief asserts ineffective assistance of counsel, specifically counsel's failure to advocate Rankin's Fourth Amendment claim of illegal search and seizure and counsel's failure to file a timely suppression motion regarding the illegally obtained evidence. Rankin concluded his petition with a request that this Court set aside his conviction and sentence with a complete discharge. Rankin's memorandum brief explains that his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is directed to his attorney's performance both at trial and on appeal.
Rankin's pro se motion for post-conviction relief ("PCR") was prematurely filed with this Court as his direct appeal had not yet been disposed of by this Court. Martin v. State, 556 So.2d 357, 359 (Miss.1990); Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 99-39-7 (Supp.1992). This Court could dismiss or deny Rankin's motion on this ground without prejudice, allowing him to institute another such action in the appropriate court at the appropriate time. Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 99-39-27(9) (Supp.1992). See also Martin, 556 So.2d at 360.
Another option is for this Court to first dispose of Rankin's direct appeal, then address his PCR action. But Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 99-39-5(2) (Supp.1992) requires that a motion for PCR be made "within three (3) years after the time in which the prisoner's direct appeal is ruled upon by the supreme court of Mississippi." (Emphasis added) This brings us back to dismissal of Rankin's PCR action without prejudice, because prematurely filed.
In light of Rankin's letter to the Clerk of this Court, requesting his trial transcript in order to prepare a supplemental appeal brief, and in the interest of judicial economy, this Court considers Rankin's "PCR" action as a supplement to his brief on direct appeal. All information necessary to dispose of his claim as a direct appeal is available to this Court at this time; therefore, the issue presented in Rankin's pro se filings will be addressed by this Court. That issue is:
A. Whether Rankin's counsel was ineffective at trial and on direct appeal because:
1. Counsel failed to advocate Rankin's Fourth Amendment claim of illegal search and seizure; and
2. Counsel failed to file a timely suppression motion regarding the illegally obtained evidence.
IV. THE LAW
A. Whether Rankin's counsel was ineffective at trial and on direct appeal because counsel failed to advocate Rankin's Fourth Amendment claim of illegal search and seizure and because counsel failed to file a timely suppression motion regarding the illegally obtained evidence.
Rankin argues his counsel was ineffective at trial and on direct appeal because he failed to assert that Rankin's person and clothing were illegally searched and the evidence obtained as a result of this search was unlawfully seized. Rankin contends that only a Terry 7 search would have been proper at the time of his arrest, and that a frisk for weapons must have been necessary and reasonable. Since the officers went beyond the scope of a Terry search, the cash and cocaine were obtained illegally and should have been suppressed. Consequently, Rankin claims his counsel was ineffective at trial and on direct appeal because he failed to file a motion to suppress the illegally obtained evidence. Without such evidence, Rankin claims he would not have been convicted, therefore his deficient representation was substantially prejudicial. Rankin also argues that his attorney should have moved to suppress the jacket, as it had not been established that the jacket belonged to Rankin.
To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must meet the two-pronged test set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), which this Court has adopted. Alexander v. State, 605 So.2d 1170, 1173 (Miss.1992); Knight v. State, 577 So.2d 392, 394 (Miss.1991); Barnes v. State, 577 So.2d 840, 841 (Miss.1991); McQuarter v. State, 574 So.2d 685, 687 (Miss.1990); Waldrop v. State, 506 So.2d 273, 275 (Miss.1987), aff'd after remand, 544 So.2d 834 (1989); Stringer v. State, 454 So.2d 468, 476 (Miss.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1230, 105 S.Ct. 1231, 84...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Mitchell v. State
...part of a routine booking procedure, but in order to obtain evidence of the crime for which he had been arrested. See Rankin v. State, 636 So.2d 652, 657 n.8 (Miss.1994). The Supreme Court explained that the search was a valid warrantless search incident to a custodial arrest. Edwards, 415 ......
-
Davis v. State
...attorney's errors, there is a reasonable probability that he would have received a different result in the trial court." Rankin v. State, 636 So.2d 652, 656 (Miss.1994). The defendant bears the burden of demonstrating that both prongs have been met. Leatherwood v. State, 473 So.2d 964, 968 ......
-
Graves v. State
...intent to distribute, or at least to rule that the evidence obtained from the search warrant was illegal. 1 See e.g., Rankin v. State, 636 So.2d 652, 657 (Miss.1994), wherein this Court stated:The strictures of the Fourth Amendment are not violated when one under lawful custodial arrest is ......
-
Jones v. State, No. 2004-KA-01412-SCT.
...MDHS. Jones further alleges that had his attorney presented this evidence at trial, he would have been exonerated. ¶ 42. In Rankin v. State, 636 So.2d 652 (Miss.1994), we enunciated the application of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), to claims a......