Pratt v. State

870 So. 2d 1241, 2004 WL 728261
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 6, 2004
Docket2002-KA-01584-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 870 So. 2d 1241 (Pratt v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pratt v. State, 870 So. 2d 1241, 2004 WL 728261 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

870 So.2d 1241 (2004)

Joseph PRATT, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2002-KA-01584-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

April 6, 2004.

*1243 Jason Lee Shelton, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by W. Glenn Watts, attorneys for appellee.

Before KING, P.J., THOMAS and MYERS, JJ.

MYERS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Joseph Pratt was convicted by a jury for the sale of cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance, in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 41-29-139(a)(1) and 41-29-142(1) (Rev.2001). The Circuit Court of Chickasaw County sentenced him to serve fifteen years, with five years suspended in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Aggrieved by his conviction, Pratt raises the following four issues on appeal.

ISSUES PRESENTED

I. Did the trial court err by refusing to allow the jury venire to be drawn from both the First and Second Judicial Districts of Chickasaw County?

II. Did the trial court err by denying Pratt's motion for directed verdict at the close of the case?

III. Was the jury verdict against the overwhelming weight of the evidence?

IV. Did the trial court err by granting the State's proposed jury instructions in violation of Rule 3.07 of the Uniform Circuit and County Court Rules?

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. On November 23, 1999, Joseph Pratt, Titus Atkinson a/k/a "Sugarman" and Sheldon Johnson were gathered at a car wash in Houston, Mississippi, when a woman in a car drove into the car wash parking lot. Pratt, Atkinson and Sheldon *1244 were not aware that the woman, Paula Oatsvall, was an confidential informant for the Houston Police Department. All three men approached Oatsvall's car. She wore a body wire and had two video cameras concealed in her vehicle. The appellant, Pratt, approached Oatsvall after Atkinson and Johnson and said to Oatsvall, "Let me get that twenty." Oatsvall asked Pratt, "Do you have a twenty sack?" Pratt replied, "Follow me to my house." When Oatsvall arrived at Pratt's house, Atkinson was already there waiting in the yard. Atkinson went over to Pratt's car, got something from Pratt and walked over to Oatsvall's car. Atkinson got into the car with Oatsvall and handed her twenty dollars worth of cocaine. Atkinson said to Oatsvall, "Let's cut a block." As they were driving away, Oatsvall gave Atkinson twenty dollars. Oatsvall dropped Atkinson by a convenience store and then took him back to Pratt's house. After the sale took place, Oatsvall went back to the disclosed location, met Brian Ely, a narcotics investigator, and gave him the drugs.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR BY REFUSING TO ALLOW THE JURY VENIRE TO BE DRAWN FROM BOTH THE FIRST AND SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICTS OF CHICKASAW COUNTY?

¶ 3. Pratt asserts as his first issue that the trial court erred by overruling his motion to quash the jury venire and thereby refusing to allow the jury venire to be drawn from both the First and Second Judicial Districts of Chickasaw County. Pratt argues that because the jury venire was taken from the First Judicial District only, he was denied a fair cross-section of potential jurors from Chickasaw County as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.

¶ 4. The crime, sale of a controlled substance, occurred in Houston, Mississippi, which is in the First Judicial District of Chickasaw County. The applicable statute for selecting a jury when a county contains two circuit court districts states:

In counties where there are two (2) circuit court districts, the jury commission shall make a list of jurors for each district in the manner directed for a county, and the same shall be treated in all respects as for an entire county. In such counties a juror shall not be required to serve out of his district, except should the court, in its discretion, otherwise direct, and except when drawn on a special venire. In either of such excepted cases, the jury shall be drawn from the two (2) jury boxes if the court so direct, one (1) name for each alternately.

Miss.Code Annotated § 13-5-21 (Rev. 2002). Pratt claims that drawing the jury venire from one district violated Mississippi Code Annotated Section 13-5-2, which provides:

It is the policy of this State that all persons selected for jury service be selected at random from a fair cross section of the population of the area served by the court, and that all qualified citizens have the opportunity in accordance with this chapter to be considered for jury service in this State and an obligation to serve as jurors when summoned for that purpose. A citizen shall not be excluded from jury service in this State on account of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or economic status.

¶ 5. Pratt makes an identical argument to the one made in Thomas v. State, 818 So.2d 335 (Miss.2002), although he wants the opposite result. In that case, the court held that the trial court did not err by drawing the jury venire from both judicial districts of Chickasaw County. Thomas, 818 So.2d at 342 (¶ 14).

*1245 ¶ 6. Section 13-5-21 meets the constitutional requirements of the Sixth Amendment. Myers v. State, 353 So.2d 1364, 1368 (Miss.1978). Juror selection as provided by statute is not mandatory, but directory. De La Beckwith v. State, 707 So.2d 547, 597 (Miss.1997). In counties that have two judicial districts, the trial judge has discretion to draw a special venire from both districts, but is not required to do so. Myers, 353 So.2d at 1368 (citing Taylor v. State, 148 Miss. 621, 114 So. 390 (1927)). Unless the defendant shows that the method used was fraudulent or a radical departure from the method prescribed by statute as to be unfair or the prevent due process of law, the appellate court will not reverse. De La Beckwith, 707 So.2d at 597. Absent an abuse of discretion, the appellate court will not reverse the trial judge's decision to draw the jury venire from one district only. Davis v. State, 660 So.2d 1228, 1261 (Miss.1995). In Davis, the court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing the defendant's request to draw the jury venire from both judicial districts without a showing that the defendant was tried by a partial and biased jury. Davis, 660 So.2d at 1261.

¶ 7. Similarly to Thomas, Pratt asserts that the jury venire was not representative of a cross-section of the community in which he lived because the jury was pooled from the First Judicial District only. Pratt contends that his arguments go well beyond those proposed in Thomas.

¶ 8. As in Thomas, Pratt directs our attention to the Supreme Court cases of Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975), and Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). In Taylor, the Supreme Court held that the "Sixth Amendment right to a trial by impartial jury of the State and District wherein the crime shall have committed, requires that the jury be drawn from a fair cross section of the community." Thomas, 818 So.2d at 341(¶ 9) (citing Taylor, 419 U.S. at 531, 95 S.Ct. 692). In Duren, a three-prong test was designed for establishing a prima facie violation of the fair-cross section requirement.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jones v. Smith
N.D. Mississippi, 2021
Glf Construction Corp. v. Credinform International
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2017
Joel Jones v. State of Mississippi
238 So. 3d 1235 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2016)
Jordan v. State
80 So. 3d 817 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2010)
Mendenhall v. State
18 So. 3d 915 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2009)
Miller v. State
17 So. 3d 1109 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2009)
Havard v. State
986 So. 2d 333 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Johnson v. State
956 So. 2d 358 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Potts v. State
955 So. 2d 913 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Dear v. State
960 So. 2d 542 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
870 So. 2d 1241, 2004 WL 728261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pratt-v-state-missctapp-2004.