Tipton v. State
| Decision Date | 20 March 2014 |
| Docket Number | NO. 2013-CA-00415-SCT,2013-CA-00415-SCT |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | FRANK SANDERS TIPTON v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI |
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT:
THOMAS M. FORTNER
ROSS PARKER SIMONS
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: MALISSA WINFIELD
JOHN R. HENRY, JR.
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - POST-CONVICTION RELIEF
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 03/20/2014
MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED:
MANDATE ISSUED:
EN BANC.
COLEMAN, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:
¶1. The instant matter is a case of first impression, asking the Court whether one wrongfully convicted of a crime and placed in the Intensive Supervision Program, commonly known as house arrest, is entitled to compensation under Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to -7. Frank Sanders Tipton was convicted of extortion and served time in Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) facilities as well as in the Intensive Supervision Program. After the Court vacated his judgment, Tipton filed a claim for compensation for wrongful conviction and incarceration. The State agreed to pay Tipton for his time servedin prison but not for his time in the Intensive Supervision Program. After both sides filed for summary judgment, the Jackson County Circuit Court granted summary judgment for the State, which Tipton appealed. We affirm the circuit court's grant of summary judgment.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶2. Frank Sanders Tipton, a former employee of a private company that provided probation monitoring services, offered to pay the monthly fine of a female probationer if she would shower in front of him. On November 14, 2007, Tipton was convicted of extortion under Mississippi Code Section 97-11-33 in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mississippi. As a result, Tipton was sentenced to serve a term of five years, with one year to be served in the custody of MDOC and two years to be served in the Intensive Supervision Program (ISP), commonly referred to as "house arrest." Upon completion of the ISP, the remainder of his sentence would be suspended and followed by two years of post-release supervision.
¶3. Subsequently, Tipton spent three hundred days in MDOC facilities, with sixty days awarded for his trusty status. Tipton then successfully completed his time with the ISP. During the course of serving his sentence, Tipton prosecuted an appeal. On June 24, 2010, the Court reversed and vacated Tipton's conviction, holding that probation monitoring and ISP-related services do not qualify as "incarceration services" but rather "alternatives to incarceration;" thus Tipton did not violate the extortion statute, Mississippi Code Section 97-11-33, as he was not an "employee of any contractor providing incarceration services." Tipton v. State, 41 So. 3d 679, 681-82 (¶ 9) (Miss. 2010); see Miss. Code Ann. § 97-11-33 (Rev. 2006).
¶4. Having already served the entirety of his sentence prior to the Court's ruling, Tipton filed a complaint seeking compensation for his wrongful incarceration under Mississippi Code Section 11-44-1. See Miss. Code Ann. §§ 11-44-1 to -7 (Rev. 2012). The State agreed that Tipton was entitled to compensation of $41,097 for the three hundred days he was physically housed in state facilities. However, the State rejected Tipton's argument that he should be compensated for the time he spent in the ISP, which would amount to an additional $100,000.
¶5. After a hearing on both parties' motions for summary judgment, the trial court agreed with the State that Tipton was entitled to compensation for his time spent in MDOC custody but not for time spent in the ISP. Thus, the trial court granted the State's motion for summary judgment, which Tipton appeals.
DISCUSSION
¶6. A circuit court's grant or denial of a motion for summary judgment is reviewed under a de novo standard. Poppenheimer v. Estate of Coyle, 98 So. 3d 1059, 1062 (¶ 7) (Miss. 2012) (citing Whitaker v. Limeco Corp., 32 So. 3d 429, 433-34 (¶ 10) (Miss. 2010)). Additionally, "when questions of law are raised the applicable standard of review is de novo." Presley v. State, 48 So. 3d 526, 529 (¶ 10) (Miss. 2010) (quoting Brown v. State, 731 So. 2d 595, 598 (¶ 6) (Miss. 1999)).
Whether the trial court erred in denying Tipton's compensation claim under the Mississippi Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment statutes, Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to -7, for the two years he participated in the Intensive Supervision Program.
¶7. Tipton argues that he should be compensated for the full length of his sentence, including the two years he spent under house arrest in the ISP. In short, he argues that time served in the ISP should be considered "imprisonment" and "incarceration" as used in the compensation statutes, Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to -7. On the other hand, the State would limit Tipton's compensation to the three hundred days he spent in a "brick and mortar" MDOC facility. Tipton's argument fails for two reasons: (1) the language of the compensation statutes and (2) the language of the ISP statute.
¶8. "It is not the function of the court to determine and announce what, in its judgment, [a] statute should provide, but to ascertain, if there be ambiguity in its terms, what it does provide." Russell v. State, 231 Miss. 176, 189, 94 So. 2d 916, 921 (1957). "Whether the statute is ambiguous, or not, the ultimate goal of this Court in interpreting a statute is to discern and give effect to the legislative intent." City of Natchez, Miss. v. Sullivan, 612 So. 2d 1087, 1089 (Miss. 1992) (citing Anderson v. Lambert, 494 So. 2d 370, 372 (Miss. 1986)). "If the words of a statute are clear and unambiguous, the Court applies the plain meaning of the statute and refrains from using principles of statutory construction." Lawson v. Honeywell Int'l, Inc., 75 So. 3d 1024, 1027 (¶ 7) (Miss. 2011). Thus, the first step in analyzing Tipton's compensation claim is to look at the statutes in question and ask whether they are ambiguous.
¶9. Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to -7 create a statutory scheme designed to compensate "innocent persons who have been wrongly convicted of felony crimes and subsequently imprisoned." Miss. Code Ann. § 11-44-1 (Rev. 2012) (emphasis added). TheLegislature's stated intent for the statute is that "innocent people who are wrongfully convicted . . . receive monetary compensation" . . . "[i]n light of the particular and substantial horror of being imprisoned for a crime one did not commit." Id. (emphasis added).
¶10. The elements required to prove a claim for compensation are listed in Mississippi Code Section 11-44-3, which requires that the claimant be convicted of a felony and "subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment" and released "[o]n grounds not inconsistent with innocence," which includes a vacated judgment, as here. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-44-3 (Rev. 2012) (emphasis added). The remaining elements, including that the accusatory instrument was dismissed, that the claim is not time-barred, that the claimant did not intentionally waive any appellate or post-conviction remedy otherwise available, and that the claim shall be verified by the claimant, all were agreed to by both parties in their Agreed Statement of Uncontested Facts. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-44-3.
¶11. Mississippi Code Section 11-44-7 details how compensation is to be awarded. Miss. Code. Ann. § 11-44-7 (Rev. 2012). The statute states that, in order to obtain a judgment, a claimant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was "convicted of one or more felonies and subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment." Id. (emphasis added). It then states that if "the court finds that the claimant was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated," the court shall award $50,000 "for each year of incarceration." Id. (emphasis added).
¶12. The plain language of the compensation statutes, which use the words "imprisonment" and "incarceration," should be interpreted as allowing compensation only for each year spent in an actual prison. Merriam-Webster defines "imprison" as "to put in . . . prison."
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary 584 (10th ed. 1993); see also Black's Law Dictionary 757 (6th ed. 1990) (defining "imprison" as "To put in a prison"). Similarly, "incarcerate" is defined as "to put in prison" and comes from the Latin "incarceratus," the past participle of "incarcerare," from "in" plus "carcer," which is Latin for "prison." Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary 587 (10th ed. 1993). The plain meaning of these words is that one who is imprisoned or incarcerated is restrained in an actual prison.
¶13. The ISP program, better known as "house arrest," was created by Mississippi Code Section 47-5-1003. The statute expressly states that the "intensive supervision program may be used as an alternative to incarceration for offenders who are low risk and nonviolent . . . ." Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5-1003 (Rev. 2011) (emphasis added). Such language would appear to preclude Tipton's argument that his time in the ISP qualified as "incarceration" or "imprisonment."
¶14. In fact, the Court construed the ISP as an alternative to incarceration, rather than incarceration in the very case in which Tipton's extortion conviction was vacated. Tipton v. State, 41 So. 3d 679 (Miss. 2010). Justice Dickinson, writing for the Court, wrote that "[s]ince the terms 'incarceration' and 'alternative to incarceration' are mutually exclusive, we reverse and vacate the conviction." Id. at 680 (¶ 1). Tipton was an employee of a private company that provided probation monitoring and ISP-related services when he was convicted of violating Mississippi Code Section 97-11-33 for offering to pay a probationer's monthly fine if she would shower in front of him. Id. at 680 (¶¶ 2-3). Tipton's conviction was vacated because he was not an "employee of...
To continue reading
Request your trial