Carr Law Firm client charged with Aggravated Driving under the Influence causing Death is convicted by a Bolivar County Jury of the lesser included misdemeanor crime of Driving Under the Influence. The client was sentenced to one day in jail.
After a one day trial in Bolivar County Circuit Court, Carr Law Firm client, Jaqueze Marshall, was found not guilty of assault on a county jail officer.
Finishing the year strong with our last lecture in week 14 teaching “Race, Civil Rights, and the Supreme Court”. For the past 5 years I have taught this class on Monday nights at Delta State University along with two other pre-law classes on Criminal Law and The Judicial Process. Time now to pass the torch to another adjunct to teach our next generation of leaders (and hopefully some future lawyers) as to how the Constitution impacts our lives every day.
Carr Law Firm is proud to announce that the Mississippi Board of Bar Commissioners has approved the creation of a new Section of the Bar: Criminal Defense. Over the past six months, our firm spearheaded the effort to get this Section created. We have reached out to our friends statewide to put together a Board of outstanding criminal defense attorneys in an effort to make this the best practice group within the Bar. You can be part of the inaugural group of members by joining the new Section when the Bar's annual enrollment opens August 1.
CLF obtained TWO more Verdicts of Not Guilty last week in Tunica County. Client was charged with one count of Aggravated Assault with a Firearm; and Felon in Possession of a Firearm.
Starting in May 2023, Indianola Police Department Sgt. Gregory Capers received an incredible amount of negative media attention in state and national news regarding a shooting incident involving an 11 year old boy while in the line of duty. Sgt. Capers was placed on administrative leave from his job without pay, and criminal allegations were filed against him.
Knowing the facts were on his side, and thankfully trusting his attorneys fighting for his job and to clear his name, slowly the truth came out.
While it is awful in ANY situation for a child to get shot, we at Carr Law Firm can now announce all felony and misdemeanor criminal charges against Sgt. Capers have been dismissed.
On March 5, 2024, the Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed a May 2022 first degree murder conviction of CLF client Jacqueze Marshall in Bolivar County. In a 14 page opinion with concurrences from all judges, the COA found that the trial court erred in forcing defense counsel to place certain individuals back on the jury that defense counsel challenged and stated race neutral reasons for doing so.
The new trial date will be set at a later date.
https://courts.ms.gov/images/Opinions/CO174462.pdf
This week Carr Law Firm client SRO Tommy Boykin, represented by Attorney Jessica Carr, has been cleared of all criminal accusations stemming from a March 2023 incident at Gentry High School in Indianola. After being terminated from his school resource officer job due to an unsupported allegation, and waiting almost a year for his day in court, no probable cause was found and charge was dismissed.
Officer Boykin is looking forward to continuing to serve the people of Sunflower County now that his name is cleared.
The Fourth Amendment requires (1) a warrant or (2) probable cause to search a person for contraband during a traffic stop. Law enforcement in this case had neither.
Client - a long time house arrest officer with MDOC - was terminated from her job because someone filed simple assault charges on her - when client was off duty breaking up a fight in a Wal Mart parking lot.
We took the case to court - not only was our client found not guilty of simple assault at trial - but the accuser herself was found guilty of simple assault, sentenced to days in jail, and had a restraining order put on her!
With the not guilty verdict in hand, we went back to the Employee Appeals Board and fought for our client. The Board did right by Mrs. Dawson - she was reinstated to her MDOC job, awarded back pay, all vacation and sick time credited, and the incident was removed from her employee file! See Order below.
This is an excerpt from an article by Elura Nanos for the publication “Law and Crime”. The original article in it’s entirety can be found here
A week after finding a prominent civil rights attorney guilty on multiple criminal charges with what was described as a “canned verdict” that was “emblematic” of how Black residents are mistreated by local government, a Mississippi judge reversed his own ruling in a short order riddled with errors.
Jill Collen Jefferson is an attorney, the President of the Civil Rights group JULIAN, a Harvard Law School professor, and a former staffer for both Barack Obama and the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. For years, Jefferson has fought for racial justice in Holmes County, Mississippi — one of the nation’s poorest counties.
In 2022, JULIAN sued the Lexington Police Department on behalf of a group of local residents over the department’s alleged misconduct that included racial profiling, harassment, threats, brutality, and corruption. The department and the town’s government are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for much the same misconduct.
In June 2023 — just days after the DOJ hosted a session for residents to speak freely about their experiences with police — Jefferson filmed a traffic stop by the same police department, and was promptly arrested Saturday, charged with multiple crimes, and held for several days in a local jail.
Jefferson ultimately stood trial for four misdemeanor charges stemming from the June arrest: unlawful use of a mobile phone while driving; obstruction of a public roadway; failure to comply; and resisting arrest. Her attorneys presented evidence that included Jefferson’s testimony as well as her video recordings. Holmes County Justice Court Judge Marcus Fisher presided over the bench trial, acting both as judge and as fact-finder.
Although the charge of unlawful mobile phone use was dropped at the conclusion of the trial, Jefferson was found guilty of the other three charges and fines were assessed against her as a penalty. In an email to Law&Crime Wednesday, Jefferson’s attorney, Michael Carr, said that the conviction, which Fisher read aloud in open court after the trial, “appeared to be a pre-prepared script.” Carr also noted that Jefferson’s testimony and evidence presented at trial directly contradicted the narrative presented by the Lexington Police Department.
Carr went on to say that as Jefferson’s legal team prepared her appeal, anomalies arose immediately. To file an appeal, the judgment of conviction must be submitted to the Circuit Court. However, Carr said that the justice court clerk advised him that although an entire week had passed since Jefferson was pronounced guilty, Fisher had not turned in his orders of conviction to file with the court.
On the same day that Carr asked for the conviction order, he received a different order signed by Fisher: one that rescinded the oral pronouncement of conviction and found Jefferson not guilty on all charges.
The unanticipated reversal was shocking.
“In 18 years of defense practice, I have never seen this happen – a judge reversing himself within days after an oral pronouncement of guilt at court and assessing fees and fines at that moment,” said Carr.
Fisher’s brief order, which contains multiple errors but no explanatory information as to the reasons underlying the unusual decision, can be seen below.
The document, “Order Resending Previous Decision” — as opposed to “rescinding” — declared that “it is the Court responsibility to carefully examine all the evidence,” and that “after a thorough review” of the case, the Court “hereby resends all Guilty verdicts previously entered on January 31.” It continues on that the “court further resends the guilty verdicts for the charges of Blocking a Public Roadway to Film a Traffic Stop and Failure to Comply.”
The 10 line order was rife with punctuation errors throughout. Jefferson initially described her trial as “really heartbreaking,” and said Fisher ignored the evidence she presented. She said she expected the “canned verdict” even before her trial began, because she observed other proceedings and noticed that Fisher already had verdict sheets printed on his desk before her trial started. When it came time for Fisher to read the verdict aloud, Jefferson said she “could tell he didn’t write [the verdict sheet] because he couldn’t pronounce some of the words in the verdict.”
Jefferson also said that during her trial and while in the courtroom, she discovered that some charges were added after the fact by the arresting officers. Furthermore, her team was not presented with key evidence that included body camera footage of the arrest until the night before Jefferson’s trial began.
Moreover, Jefferson reported that Officer Scott Walters, the main officer involved in her arrest, bragged about the arrest and even taunted Jefferson with a Facebook friend request after she was found guilty.
Jefferson called her experience “emblematic of what we’re organizing against,” and warned that had there not been public outcry, her verdict would never have been reversed.
“It’s a personal victory for me, but in terms of this community, they’re not going to do that for any of the innocent Black people that they’ve put canned verdicts against,” Jefferson told MPB News, “They’re not going to reexamine those cases and give them a second chance. They only did that because I’m an attorney and know my rights and we kicked up a stink about all of this.”
Another case dismissed! Client and his co-defendant incarcerated for approximately two years in Coahoma County awaiting trial on charges of Kidnapping and Aggravated Assault. Alleged victim was continuiously uncooperative and would not come to court on any hearings or motions. Finally, on day of trial, when we announced ready, DA had no choice but to drop the case.
Case Dismissed! During the execution of a search warrant based on the word of a confidential informant, a 12 member SWAT team broke down my client’s door, ransacked his house, terrified his family, only to find a $20 crack rock in a bowl of grits! (0.3 grams) Client was arrested, incarcerated, and indicted, only to have the DA’s office dismiss the case 5 years later on the morning of trial - after our firm announced we were ready for trial.
If you are law enforcement or MDOC, we are there when you need us.
Carr gets another big win in Coahoma County for his client charged with First-Degree Murder. All charges were dismissed!
Attorney Michael Carr has been an attorney with the Southern States Police Benevolent Association for the last 13 years. On December 17, he traveled with client and PBA Member Greg Capers for an exclusive interview with Good Morning America. We are proud to help our members with all issues including criminal, civil, employment, and misdemeanor matters.
Corresponding Article can be found below:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/officer-speaks-after-grand-jury-clears-shooting-11/story?id=105737488
Bolivar County criminal trial term week 4 update: one case was tried from a 2019 allegation of sexual battery which resulted in a hung jury. Defendant was represented by Mike Carr of Carr Law Firm. A second case was attempted to be started on Wednesday on a charge of manslaughter, but a sheriff’s deputy accidentally allowed for prospective jurors to see one of the defendants while he was still in an orange jumpsuit and in shackles, which is prejudicial to his right to a fair trial and a constititional violation, therefore caused a mistrial even before the trial could start. This resulted in no convictions this week by the DA’s office.
On October 24, Attorneys Mike and Jessica Carr spoke with Chancellor Debra M. Giles and Jennifer Adams Williams about encouraging law students to consider small town and rural law practice as part of our membership in the Access to Justice Commission of the Mississippi Bar. While years in the making, we at the ATJC have finally established a rural practice summer clerkship program where the Bar will sponsor select law students to partner with rural practitioners to assist with the various legal needs of Mississippians in underserved areas of our state.
Congratulations to Jessica Carr for TEN YEARS of law practice! Focusing exclusively on criminal defense, Jessica always strives to achieve the best results for her clients. If you or a loved one have a criminal matter in Mississippi state or federal court, please call Jessica for a free consultation at 662-441-1529.
July 24 - State v. Hill, Porter, Stacker, and Marion (2020 incident) - charge of shooting into a dwelling x2 and shooting into a motor vehicle x2. Law enforcement prior to trial had told the DA they had lost material evidence - DA did not inform defense counsel or the Court and started trial anyway. The Court, upon discovery of this issue mid-trial, properly declared mistrial. Post mistrial - Court further suppressed all evidence as violation of search and seizure. DA office had no admissible evidence left. Case dismissed
July 31 - (2019 incident) State v. Green & Walls - 1st Degree Murder and Aggravated Assault - hung jury
Aug 7 - (2021 incident) State v. Harmon - Manslaughter - Mistrial declared due to DA failure to disclose autopsy pictures to defense counsel.
Aug 10- (2019 incident) State v. Pollard - multiple counts of drug possession - Mistrial declared bc Defendant brought into courtroom before the jury while still in chains.
Every one of these cases is 2-4 years old. Due to the mistrials and the hung jury - all are still on the Court docket. Each jury costs Coahoma County (conservatively) $3,500. This price does not include the cost of pretrial incarceration which can last years as well as the cost of manpower to investigate these cases and expert witness fees and expenses.
In short, in the past three weeks, taxpayers of Coahoma County spent well over $15,000 with no return.
Carr Law Firm is a boutique criminal defense and personal injury firm practicing in state and federal courts across Mississippi.
CARR LAW FIRM, PLLC
The Gallery Building
301 West Sunflower Road, Suite D
Cleveland, MS 38732
T 662.441.1LAW
F 662.441.1530
