Baker v. State

327 So. 2d 288
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 10, 1976
Docket48665
StatusPublished
Cited by61 cases

This text of 327 So. 2d 288 (Baker v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baker v. State, 327 So. 2d 288 (Mich. 1976).

Opinion

327 So.2d 288 (1976)

George M. BAKER
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 48665.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 10, 1976.
Rehearing Denied March 16, 1976.

*290 Nichols, Gore & Hilburn, Poole & Marks, Jackson, Robertshaw & Merideth, J. Murray Akers, Greenville, Dannye Lee Hunter, Forest, for appellant.

A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Karen Gilfoy, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before PATTERSON, INZER and WALKER, JJ.

WALKER, Justice.

The appellant, George M. Baker, was tried and convicted of the murder of his ex-wife, Patricia Coleman Baker, in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. From a verdict of guilty and a sentence to life imprisonment, he prosecutes this appeal. We affirm.

On the night of October 13, 1973, appellant Baker, after having dinner at a local restaurant, returned home with his second wife of ten years and told her that he would be "right back." The appellant then got into his truck, drove to the residence of his ex-wife, Patricia Coleman Baker, whom he had prearranged to meet outside her house, and shot her three times with a .44 magnum carbine rifle. He then returned to his home where he told his present wife, Joy Baker, "I think Pat was shot." In response to a question from her, he said "There was this face and there was a loud noise."

Baker entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

We will consider only those assignments of error which we feel warrant discussion.

I.

The appellant first contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to quash the indictment and the special venire.

Prior to the jury being empaneled, appellant moved to quash the indictment on the ground that the members of the grand jury, the special venire and the petit jury were not selected from qualified electors or freeholders residing in the entire county. The grand jury, special venire and petit jury were selected from what is designated as Judicial District No. 1 of Hinds County, Mississippi. The appellant contends that the jurors were selected from this area of Hinds County under the mistaken assumption of law that Hinds County is divided into two judicial districts. He contends that such is not the case and that the county has not been divided into two judicial districts since 1906.

A review of the pertinent statutes is helpful. Hinds County was originally divided into two court districts in 1858 and this was brought forward in the Code of 1871 as follows:

§ 92. HINDS COUNTY is divided into two court districts with the following limits (established December 2d, 1858): The first district is composed of all that portion of Hinds county lying east of the range line between ranges one and two, west, with the place for holding the court therein, at the court-house or city hall, at the city of Jackson.
§ 93. The second district is composed of all of that portion of Hinds county lying west of the range line between one and two, west, with the place of holding courts therein, at the court-house in the town of Raymond.

These statutes were not brought forward in any subsequent Code and the appellant contends that the Act of Adoption of each succeeding Code explicitly repealed all omitted laws of a general character. The sections of the Codes relied upon by appellant are as follows:

Mississippi Code of 1906, Act of Adoption:

§ 13. On and after the first day of October, 1906, all laws of a general character not brought forward and embodied *291 in the Mississippi code of 1906 shall be thereafter repealed; but this shall not apply to any act of the legislature adopted at the present session thereof.

Mississippi Code of 1930, Act of Adoption:

§ 15. The Mississippi Code of 1930 shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of November, 1930, and all laws of a general character not brought forward or embodied in said code, except laws granting exemptions from taxation for a period of years, shall be thereafter repealed; but this shall not apply to any act of the present legislature which is not incorporated in said code.

Also see Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 11 (1956) and Mississippi Code Annotated section 1-1-19 (1972).

In support of his contention that the statute which divided Hinds County into two separate judicial districts was a general law, appellant cites Carter v. Harrison County Election Commission,[1] 183 So.2d 630 (Miss. 1966) which dealt with an act dividing Harrison County into separate judicial districts — and which as a practical matter could only apply to Harrison County — where this Court held that the act was not in violation of Mississippi Constitution, Article 4, Section 90 (1890), which prohibits the enactment of local, private or special acts.

In construing Mississippi Code of 1906, section 13, which states that: "On and after the first day of October, 1906, all laws of a general character not brought forward and embodied in the Mississippi code of 1906 shall be thereafter repealed ...," we must look to the intent of the Legislature. (Emphasis added).

We have held in a number of cases that in construing a statute the Court must seek the intention of the Legislature, and, knowing it, must adopt that interpretation which will meet the real meaning of the Legislature. Carter v. Harrison County Election Commission, supra; Beard v. Stanley, 205 Miss. 723, 39 So.2d 317 (1949); Rawlings v. Ladner, 174 Miss. 611, 165 So. 427 (1936); Kennington v. Hemingway, 101 Miss. 259, 57 So. 809 (1911). Furthermore, the Court in construing a statute will not impute an unjust or unwise purpose to the Legislature when any other reasonable construction can save it from such imputation. Beard v. Stanley, supra; Hendrix v. Foote, 205 Miss. 1, 38 So.2d 111 (1948); Gunter v. City of Jackson, 130 Miss. 637, 94 So. 844 (1922); Dunn v. Clinghan, 93 Miss. 310, 47 So. 503 (1908).

With these rules in mind, we find that the Mississippi Code of 1906 actually recognized the existence of two separate judicial districts in Hinds County and fixed the court terms for those districts in both the circuit and chancery courts. Miss. Code §§ 501, 680 (1906). Furthermore, since the enactment of the Mississippi Code of 1906, the Legislature has many times recognized the existence of two judicial districts in Hinds County by the enactment of numerous statutes dealing with the courts and court terms of those two districts. Miss. Code Anno. §§ 254, 451 (Hemingway 1917); Miss. Code Anno. §§ 259, 463 (Hemingway 1927); Miss. Code Anno. §§ 318, 473 (1930); Miss. Code 1942 Anno. §§ 1220, 1401 (1956); Miss. Code Anno. §§ 9-5-17, 9-7-23 (1972).

It is clear to us that the Legislature did not intend to repeal sections 92 and 93 of the Code of 1871 which divided Hinds County into two separate judicial districts. *292 These two statutes, which referred to Hinds County by name and which only applied to Hinds County, were not of such a "general character" as to be repealed by the Mississippi Code of 1906 when they were not brought forward into that Code.

II.

It is next contended that the trial judge committed reversible error by a comment that he made when ruling on an objection.

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327 So. 2d 288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-v-state-miss-1976.