McCoy v. City of Monroe

747 So. 2d 1234, 1999 WL 1140395
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 8, 1999
Docket32,521-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 747 So. 2d 1234 (McCoy v. City of Monroe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCoy v. City of Monroe, 747 So. 2d 1234, 1999 WL 1140395 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

747 So.2d 1234 (1999)

Billy Mac McCOY, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CITY OF MONROE, et al., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 32,521-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 8, 1999.
Rehearing Denied January 20, 2000.

*1237 Billy Mac McCoy, Appellant—In Proper Person.

D. Milton Moore, III, Appellee—In Proper Person.

David G. Erskine, Columbia, Counsel for Jimmy Dimos.

C. Lynn Tubb, West Monroe, Counsel for Ouachita Parish Jury.

Jerry Jones, District Attorney, Counsel for Ouachita Parish District Attorney's Office.

Nancy Summersgill, City Attorney, Counsel for City of Monroe.

Richard Stalder, Counsel for State of Louisiana DOC.

BEFORE: NORRIS, C.J., and GASKINS and DREW, JJ.

GASKINS, J.

The plaintiff, Billy Mac McCoy, appeals from a trial court judgment granting exceptions of prescription and/or no cause of action in favor of the defendants, the City of Monroe, the Ouachita Parish Police Jury, the Ouachita Parish District Attorney's Office, Judge D. Milton Moore, III, and the attorney who represented the defendant at his criminal trial, Jimmy Dimos. We affirm the trial court judgment.

FACTS

McCoy was convicted of aggravated rape on September 12, 1973. On September 24, 1973, he was sentenced to serve life in prison. Over the years, the defendant has filed numerous applications for post conviction relief and for an out-of-time appeal. These all appear to be pro se applications and all have been denied.[1] McCoy also sought relief in the federal court system and was equally unsuccessful in that court.

*1238 The defendant now files the present civil suit against all possible parties connected with his prosecution, seeking to have his sentence commuted to twenty years. Since he has already served approximately twenty-six years, this would result in his immediate release. McCoy also seeks monetary damages totaling 35 million dollars.

At the time McCoy was convicted, the penalty for aggravated rape was death. However, a responsive verdict of "guilty without capital punishment" was available, whereby the defendant would be sentenced to life in prison. In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), the United States Supreme Court found the death penalty, as then applied, was unconstitutional. The Louisiana Supreme Court began remanding murder and aggravated rape cases where the death penalty had been imposed, for resentencing to life imprisonment. In an attempt to overcome Furman's objections to the death penalty, the Louisiana legislature amended the aggravated rape statute to make the death penalty mandatory.[2] The qualifying verdict of guilty without capital punishment in aggravated rape cases, with its attendant sentence of life imprisonment, was deleted. At that point, the only available verdicts for aggravated rape were guilty, guilty of attempted aggravated rape, guilty of simple rape, and not guilty.

Then, in 1976, the United States Supreme Court declared Louisiana's mandatory death penalty unconstitutional, because the jury was not given a chance to consider aggravating or mitigating circumstances. Selman v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 906, 96 S.Ct. 3214, 49 L.Ed.2d 1212 (1976); Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976). Thereafter, because the most stringent penalty for a responsive verdict to aggravated rape was twenty years, the Louisiana Supreme Court began remanding aggravated rape cases, in which the mandatory death penalty was applied, for resentencing to twenty years. See State v. Craig, 340 So.2d 191 (La.1976); State v. Lee, 340 So.2d 180 (La. 1976).

McCoy was convicted before the amendment to the statute, at a time when life imprisonment was still an option. Upon his conviction, he was sentenced to serve life in prison without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. However, he argues that, because those prisoners sentenced to death for aggravated rape had their sentences converted to a term of twenty years, he has been unjustly required to serve a longer sentence than those prisoners convicted of the same offense who faced a more severe penalty.

On August 3, 1998, the plaintiff filed a pro se civil suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and La. C.C. art. 2315, for monetary damages for deprivation of his rights. McCoy, proceeding as a pauper, sought to enjoin the enforcement of his conviction and sought $25 million in compensatory damages as well as $10 million in punitive damages. He also sought to have counsel appointed to represent him and he requested a jury trial. He named as defendants all parties even remotely connected with the defendant's conviction, including Judge D. Milton Moore, III, the Parish of Ouachita, the Ouachita Parish District Attorney's Office, and the City of Monroe.[3]*1239 In addition, he named as defendants Jimmy Dimos and Jerry Finley, the attorneys who represented him at trial.[4]

McCoy claimed that he is entitled to benefit from the unconstitutionality of the death penalty because the jury was ordered to return a verdict that violated due process. He also argued that his indictment was unconstitutional because blacks and women were excluded from the grand jury. McCoy further alleged that the Department of Corrections failed to provide him any assistance to attack his unconstitutional conviction and sentence.[5]

McCoy contended that the district attorney's office is liable because it obtained a conviction under an unlawful indictment. He further claimed that Jimmy Dimos and Jerry Finley are liable for refusing to timely appeal his conviction and sentence.

McCoy complained that his requests for an out-of-time appeal have been repeatedly denied without a hearing. McCoy contended that Judge Moore is biased against him and he argued that the city and parish are responsible for the acts and/or omissions of the judge in refusing to grant the relief he requested.

Judge Moore filed an exception of no cause of action and argued that the suit against him was barred by judicial immunity. He contended that the plaintiff's pleadings failed to set forth any cognizable action against the judge which would purport to give rise to civil liability. The judge contended that he inherited this case from Judge Robert T. Farr and that his actions on McCoy's post conviction relief applications were made solely in his capacity as a district court judge.

Ouachita Parish also filed an exception of no cause of action, arguing that the parish is not responsible for the acts or omissions of Judge Moore. The parish contends that judges are elected officials and neither the parish nor the police jury has vicarious liability for the acts of a judge.

Jimmy Dimos filed an exception of prescription, contending that the matter is governed either by the one year prescriptive period for tort actions set forth in La. C.C. art. 3492 or the peremptive period for legal malpractice claims found in La. R.S. 9:5605. McCoy then answered this argument, contending that Dimos committed fraud and therefore under La. R.S. 9:5605(E), the peremptive period did not begin to run.

The Ouachita Parish District Attorney's Office also filed an exception of prescription.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
747 So. 2d 1234, 1999 WL 1140395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccoy-v-city-of-monroe-lactapp-1999.