Parris Island, South Carolina. The United States Marine Corps. 1987. Third Battalion, India Company, Platoon 3056. I joined the Marine Corps on a whim. The recruiter told me he “only had one space left,” and I believed him. When I got on the bus to Marine Corps boot camp I found out that recruiter had filled [...]
Read MoreJuly 2010
There are dozens of ways to resolve a criminal case in Mississippi, and “nonadjudication” is one of the best, short of being found “Not Guilty.” If you meet the criteria necessary for nonadjudiction, and if you are patient and stay out of trouble, the end result will be that the conviction stays off your record. “Nonadjudication” [...]
Read MoreIt has been my experience that the crime of “drug paraphernalia” catches most people off guard. The definition of drug paraphernalia casts a very wide net, and most people possess items that could be classified as drug paraphernalia and don’t know it. The key is what you plan to do with it. The Drug Enforcement [...]
Read MoreMississippi State Court In a felony case you have the right to be tried by a jury of 12 people. This number is implicit in Mississippi’s Constitution, which states in Section 31 that “The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate . . . .” The Mississippi Supreme Court stated way back in 1884 [...]
Read MoreMississippi was once home to at least eight major Native American tribes. Sparing you from an extended history lesson, most of these cultures were forced out of Mississippi in the late nineteenth century, and although the tribes are not extinct, most of them survive only in reservations in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. There is only one federally-recognized Indian [...]
Read MoreIf you are convicted of even the most minor misdemeanor domestic violence charge you could lose your right to possess a firearm. In 1996 Congress enacted the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban (“Gun Ban for Individuals Convicted of a Misdemeanor Crime of Domestic Violence”, Pub.L. 104-2208, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). This law prohibits shipment, ownership and use of [...]
Read MoreSafety Valve Sentencing in Federal Court If you are convicted of a crime in federal court, many times there is a mandatory minimum sentence involved. The court must give you at least this mandatory minimum sentence, absent some exception. The federal “safety valve,” as it is called, is one of only a few ways out of a mandatory [...]
Read MoreMississippi made home repair fraud a distinct crime in 2003, and refined the law in 2006 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In order to convict you of home repair fraud, the state must prove that you contracted with someone (written or oral) to repair their home, and you knowingly: Misrepresented a material fact relating to [...]
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