Friday, July 22, 2022

Supremes Send AG Back to Civics 101

 Lynn Fitch's attorneys apparently need to take some classes in Mississippi Government 101 after the Mississippi Supreme Court embarrassed her office Wednesday.  

This tale of incompetence begins with the Alberto Garcia case. A truly evil man,  Garcia confessed to raping and murdering a five year-old girl by hanging her from a metal bar with two socks. He waived his right to a jury trial and the trial judge sentenced him to death in 2017.  The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the sentence in 2020.  The Court's ruling on the sentence "triggered" a one-year statute of limitations for Garcia to apply for post-conviction relief challenging his sentence.  The Court appointed two lawyers from the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel to represent Garcia in his death-penalty appeal.  

The state budget funds CPCC.  CPCC lawyers are salaried state employees.  However, the Attorney General's office seemed not to know this little fact because they attempted to fire a preemptive strike on Garcia's attorneys.  

Assistant Attorney General Brad Smith filed a motion for notice and opportunity to be heard on requests for litigation expenses.  Yup, the AG shysters filed a motion to limit how much the state could spend on Garcia's appeal even though CPCC lawyers did not submit any expenses or compensation claims to the Court. The AG argued the Legislature intended for her office to have oversight over "CPCC litigation" even though it is a separate state agency and uses its own lawyers.  Control freak, anyone?

Garcia's lawyers argued the motion was moot because they are salaried employees.  However, the trial court agreed with the AG (The motion is posted below.) so Garcia appealed to the Supremes.  

 


 

The Court gave the Attorney General a little bit of a history lesson.  The Legislature created CPCC in 2000 for indigent defendants sentenced to death.   The office employs full-time lawyers who represent death-row inmates. The Court cited Section 99-15-18 of the Mississippi Code: 

Under subsection (1), “[c]ounsel employed by an office funded by the State of Mississippi or any county shall receive no compensation or expenses for representation of a party seeking post-conviction relief while under a sentence of death other than the compensation attendant to his office.” Miss. Code Ann. § 99-15-18(1). But if the indigent petitioner is represented by appointed counsel who is not “employed by such an office,” counsel is to be paid by an hourly rate.
Concluding the history lesson, the Court turned to administering a spanking to the Attorney General's lawyers: 

¶21.  With the rule’s history and plain language in mind, we find that, contrary to the Attorney General’s interpretation, Rule 22(c)(3) does not convey to the Attorney General the right to weigh in on how the CPCC, a separate state agency, conducts its investigations and post-conviction litigation.  Instead, Rule 22(c)(3) implements House Bill 1228, which expressly empowers the CPCC director to pay the salaries and expenses necessary for the CPCC to represent indigent people under sentences of death. H.B. 1228, § 7. At no point does the Act mention oversight by the Attorney General.
The Court reversed the trial court and ruled the Attorney General has no oversight over the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel.   The motion to limit expenses was frivolous as the attorneys are salaried and their compensation is not a matter subject to the trial court's discretion.  In other words, the Attorney General wasted everyone's time because her office didn't know how state government works.

The decision was unanimous.


39 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol

Back to suing CHYNAH

Talk about a frivolous waste of taxpayer money.

Anonymous said...

The AG has been spending too much time researching how to sue China. What an empty skirt.

Anonymous said...

I have no axe to grind – – I’m just curious as to why so much of the Mississippi press relishes every opportunity to disparage Lynn Fitch – – what’s it all about?

Anonymous said...

This won’t be the last time the AG’s office gets embarrassed while playing politics.

Anonymous said...

Lynn is egregiously incompetent, and fired most of the males with a brain in favor of females.

Anonymous said...

Fitch is terrible at her job, but the esteemed Judge Lisa Dodson of the Harrison County Circuit Court deserves mention for her role in wasting everyone’s time. (Did I mention that Fitch is terrible at her job?)

Anonymous said...

Queen Lynn, It’s called karma!

Anonymous said...

Fitch is such a self promoter. When she was Treasurer, she had a website created TreasurerLynnFitch.com at taxpayer expense im sure. This site was promoted by her as a way we could contact her office. Straight up campaign tool for name recognition. I wonder, has she done the same thing for her current job? so shady

Krusatyr said...

Such a guilty savage deserves a daily opportunity to off themselves:

"Will sir accept the pill today?"

Anonymous said...

Fitch dismantled the Death Penalty Division bringing in young baby lawyers who had never practiced much less were ready to argue in front of the highest court in the State over literal life and death issues.

Anonymous said...

While I abhor Lynn Fitch, the best thing she did was dismantle the Capital Division. It was filled with mean-spirited idiots. Now who she replaced those attorneys with was a horrible choice. They have no experience practicing, much less arguing capital cases. Fitch and the Capital Division should be sanctioned for filing such a frivolous pleading.

Anonymous said...

The vitriol against Fitch seems overstated to me. After all, her attorneys won in the trial court. Why aren't we lambasting the trial judge first and foremost? It was Harrison County Circuit Court Judge Lisa P. Dodson whose ruling got reversed.

Anonymous said...

Amen that Lisa Dodson deserves a shout-out for her incompetence too.

Anonymous said...

10:37, you gotta start somewhere, no? If you have a problem with young attorneys deciding serious cases, you may want to check with the Supremes and COA, hell, even the 5ths...Most law clerks are baby attorneys that have never practiced deciding/helping decide life and death cases. But you knew that before commenting because you are at the top of your game!

Brad Smith is just the fall guy...young because they can be controlled easier and will stay quiet...I'd be willing to bet Smith was following orders.

Anonymous said...

This DHS suit will blow up in her face too. Watch how much time and money is wasted in that black hole.

Anonymous said...

Fitch begged career AG lawyers to come out of retirement (or work part time) to train all the new lawyers she hired.

Fitch literally gutted the competent staff.

Now…that’s by plan mind you.

An incompetent AG can not successfully sue a google or any other large entity so…advantage Tate. This stupid AG can’t even serve or find China in a map.

Anonymous said...

The problem is not Brad Smith, who is actually one of the few experienced DP litigators who survived the purge.

The problem is the inexperienced baby lawyers Lynn put in to "supervise" the Criminal Division who make the calls and then leave their people out to dry

Anonymous said...

I'm guess Miss Fitch had nothing to do with this as it would take a bit more deep thinking to even come up with the challenge (as wrong as it was). She was prompted to do it, perhaps even set up. Could there be a lone male in the office who would have done this.

I recall as early as election eve, the Lady In Red hired a divorce lawyer who worked in the private law firm of a Madison County lady lawyer (beside the point that she claims to do no private work on County time) who won elective office up there. It was coincidental that the divorce lawyer had campaigned heavily for the Lady In Red.

Point being, she hired a bunch of girls who she knew would bend a knee, offering pearls and incense.

Meahwhile: Has Fitch, outside of furniture decisions, every had an independent thought?

Anonymous said...

What do you expect from her?

Anonymous said...

Well guys, we have to be happy with what’s left in Mississippi. This is our “best and brightest.” Our actual best and brightest flee this godforsaken backwards state for greener pastures as quickly as possible. This is what we’re left with. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Let us continue to bask in our ignorance, laziness, and stupidity while our “leaders” keep pulling the wool over our eyes and feeding at the taxpayer trough.

Anonymous said...

I'm just here for the comments. And not surprisingly, they are NOT disappointing. Of course, when Fitch gives this kind of material to work with, it is almost too easy. Hopefully, somewhere someone is quietly putting together the ground work to primary her. Should be an interesting race to say the least.

Anonymous said...

Why would you file a motion in the trial court, prevail, then email that judge and say actually we can’t afford the ramifications of winning this motion.

Either

1 you didn’t think anyone would actually buy your argument
2 you didn’t think it through before hand
3. All of the above because you are a baby lawyer or career law clerk turned division director

Anonymous said...

WOW! I know virtually nothing about AG Fitch, so I have been neither pro nor con about her. However, every time JJ brings up a story about her, I'm surprised at the number of commenters who seem to have very specific, negative information about her. In my experience, THAT many people are usually not wrong.

Anonymous said...

Isn’t one of Ol Lynn’s former deputies now running the CPCC that just completely kicked her @ss in court! Pretty good right there.

Anonymous said...

9:34, I suspect most of the Lynn haters are curmudgeons that used to have a job where women in those days had a pinnacle job of being a secretary. They can't stand that smart, accomplished women of today make them feel even more inferior.

Anonymous said...

@3:02

I don't know what smart accomplished women and Lynn Fitch have to do with one another. I guess they are both women?

Anonymous said...

From my front porch, her office is an embarrassment. I'm a republican, and she needs to be primaried next time she's up. She is ineffective and incompetent, in my opinion. And from reading this blog, she spent way too much time fighting with her step-mother over her deceased father's assets, to be an effective AG. Her office has been handed multiple corruption cases on a silver platter, and has refused (failed) to prosecute them, allegedly. I guess she's like the others that the fine former Govna from the mid 2000's helped get into office. Too many favors owed. Lynn, do us all a favor and just resign.

Anonymous said...

Look at all of those empty kitchens that the AG created when she filled all of those vacancies that she created.

Anonymous said...

@3:02pm - lol… you serious Clark?

Anonymous said...

Pathetic. Truly embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

Lynn Fitch is a politician. She has never tried a lawsuit or argued an appeal in her life. And the lawyers on her staff are second tier at best. Lower your expectations for Lynn so you won’t be disappointed.

Anonymous said...

11:26--What you say is correct. Brad Smith is one of four attorneys in the entire division who survived the "purge". Two, including Smith, are in the death penalty section, one is in federal habeas corpus (for those who might not know that section of the division handles non-death penalty federal post-conviction challenges to state court convictions), and one is in the section of the division that handles all non-death penalty direct appeals from convictions and petitions for state post-conviction relief after convictions are affirmed on direct appeal. The head of the entire division has never tried a kind of case, never argued a case on appeal, and has no background in criminal law. Until recently, the head of the death penalty section was a woman who had practiced bankruptcy law on the Coast. I understand she left and went back to the Coast and got married. The deputy attorney general over the criminal division was employed by the federal public defender's office, and she still seems to think from a public defender's point of view. The attorneys Fitch hired almost without exception were young female lawyers with little to no experience in the law. That of itself would not be a problem if they had older, experienced lawyers to turn to for guidance. But, as you say, Fitch ran off or fired almost all of those throughout the office. The problem, though, is office-wide. The lawyer who argued the Dobbs case came from the US Department of Justice, has a much different background from most of Fitch's hires. For years and under several attorneys general the criminal division had some of the longest-serving attorneys in that office and as a group possessed a deep knowledge of the criminal law, one or two going back to A.F. Summer.

Anonymous said...

You get what you voted for.

Anonymous said...

After the train wreck Fitch was while "leading" the State Personnel Board, we saw fit to PROMOTE her??

Anonymous said...

After the train wreck Fitch was while "leading" the State Personnel Board, we saw fit to PROMOTE her??

Yes; She was appointed, by a governor, to 'run' the Department of Employment Security and left that job before she learned to route to the ladies room. Then we promoted her to State Treasurer so she could advertise the college savings program.

What this boils down to is nothing more than women voting for women and having the power in numbers to put 'one of their own', regardless of competency, in elective office. And while 'they' accuse men of being misogynists, it is they who detest men in positions of power. The 'we shall overcome syndrome'.

Bill Dees said...

Fitch and David McRae are the poster children for The Peter Principle.

Anonymous said...

If that's true, 10:25, there's a big difference. McRae is quietly doing the job to which he was elected, not grandstanding, not chasing microphones and cameras, not making a fool of himself.

Anonymous said...

KF - what ever happened to the blow up with Queen Fitch using her security details for personal use and the lawsuits with her stepmom? I saw that on here a few years ago and never saw a resolution…. Just curious…

Anonymous said...

1:34 pm - both still going on



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