Court Dismisses Death Row Lawsuit
The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied an appeal from a group of death row inmates who claimed the state provided inadequate legal counsel.
The lawsuit was dismissed in Hinds County Chancery Court in 2010. The Supreme Court said Thursday it agreed with the chancellor that the case should not have been filed in his court.
Justice David Anthony Chandler says that under Mississippi’s post-conviction law, an inmate must ask the Supreme Court for permission to go back into a trial court with a new appeal.
The lawsuit claimed the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel was inadequately staffed and its attorneys are not versed in handling death row appeals.
The state office was created in 2000 to lift the burden off counties to pay for continuing death row appeals.
