Trotter v. State

907 So. 2d 397, 2005 WL 351332
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedFebruary 15, 2005
Docket2004-CP-00067-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 907 So. 2d 397 (Trotter 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
Trotter v. State, 907 So. 2d 397, 2005 WL 351332 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

907 So.2d 397 (2005)

Milton TROTTER, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-CP-00067-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

February 15, 2005.
Rehearing Denied May 10, 2005.
Certiorari Denied July 21, 2005.

*399 Office of the Attorney General by Billy L. Gore, attorney for appellee.

Milton Trotter, appellant, pro se.

Before BRIDGES, P.J., CHANDLER and GRIFFIS, JJ.

CHANDLER, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Milton Trotter, along with three co-defendants, kidnaped a victim and stole the victim's father's car. The defendants intended to go to Chicago in the stolen car. On their way to Chicago, the four defendants spent an evening at a hotel in Mississippi. That evening, while Trotter was unconscious from excessive drinking, the other three co-defendants killed the kidnaped victim by choking her to death. The defendants drove the stolen car to Chicago, where they were apprehended. They were brought to Mississippi for their trials. On the capital murder charge, Trotter waived indictment and pleaded guilty to murder less than capital. Nearly twenty-two years later, Trotter filed a writ of habeas corpus. The Lauderdale County Circuit Court treated this writ as a motion for post-conviction relief and dismissed all claims. Trotter appeals, raising the following issues:

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN CONSTRUING TROTTER'S HABEAS CORPUS PETITION AS A REQUEST FOR POST-CONVICTION RELIEF
II. WHETHER TROTTER IS PROCEDURALLY BARRED FROM ASSERTING HIS ACTUAL INNOCENCE
III. WHETHER TROTTER'S MURDER CONVICTION IS A VIOLATION OF DOUBLE JEOPARDY
IV. WHETHER TROTTER RECEIVED EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL
V. WHETHER TROTTER VOLUNTARILY ENTERED HIS GUILTY PLEA
VI. WHETHER THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI HAD JURISDICTION TO SENTENCE TROTTER TO CAPITAL MURDER OR MURDER LESS THAN CAPITAL
VII. WHETHER THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI HAD JURISDICTION TO SENTENCE TROTTER TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT
VIII. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN FAILING TO CONSTRUE TROTTER'S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION AS A MOTION PURSUANT TO MISSISSIPPI RULE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 60

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. On January 24, 1981, Trotter, along with three other defendants, traveled from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Inglewood, *400 California. These defendants kidnaped and abducted a victim and stole the victim's father's car. After the kidnaping, the defendants proceeded back to New Orleans.

¶ 4. On January 30, 1981, the defendants left New Orleans and arrived in Mississippi, where they stayed at a hotel. While they were at the hotel, and when Trotter claims to have been passed out from drinking too much, the other defendants killed the kidnaped victim by choking her to death. After leaving Mississippi, all the defendants proceeded to Chicago, Illinois, in the stolen car. They were apprehended in Chicago and were brought back to Mississippi for their trials. The prosecution for the kidnaping occurred in federal court, in the Southern District of Mississippi. The prosecution for the capital murder charge occurred in state court, in Lauderdale County, Mississippi.

¶ 5. On October 19, 1981, Trotter waived his indictment on the charge of capital murder and pleaded guilty to murder less than capital. The court accepted his guilty plea and sentenced Trotter to serve the rest of his natural life in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, to be served concurrently with his life sentence for kidnaping in the United States Federal Court. Nearly twenty-two years later, on October 9, 2003, Trotter filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He alleged that the court did not have jurisdiction to convict him for murder, that the court did not have jurisdiction to impose a life sentence, that the plea was not voluntary, that his attorney failed to render effective assistance of counsel, and that Trotter was subjected to double jeopardy.

¶ 6. The circuit court treated Trotter's habeas petition as a motion for post-conviction relief. As such, the judge dismissed three of Trotter's claims because they were time-barred, and he dismissed Trotter's other claims on the merits.

ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN CONSTRUING TROTTER'S HABEAS CORPUS PETITION AS A REQUEST FOR POST-CONVICTION RELIEF

¶ 7. Trotter's application for relief was styled "Petition of Writ for Habeas Corpus." The circuit court analyzed his claim under the Mississippi Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act (UPCCRA), Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-1 through 99-39-29 (Supp.2004). Trotter argues that the court erred in treating his habeas corpus petition as a motion for post-conviction relief. We disagree. Post-conviction relief motions analyzed under the UPCCRA are habeas corpus petitions. Edmond v. Mississippi Dep't of Corrections, 783 So.2d 675, 678(¶ 9) (Miss.2001) (citing Gaines v. State, 736 So.2d 433, 434(¶ 4) (Miss.Ct.App.1999)). There is no merit in Trotter's argument that a habeas corpus petition cannot be analyzed under the UPCCRA.

¶ 8. The circuit court was correct in construing Trotter's application for relief as a post-conviction relief claim. The record shows that, after waiving an indictment, Trotter entered a guilty plea for murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Trotter's request for relief, in essence, is simply a challenge to the validity of his life sentence. Therefore, Trotter's request for relief is a motion for post-conviction relief. "`[P]urely collateral post-conviction remedies attacking a judgment of conviction or sentence should be sought under authority of the Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act since that Act, in the pure post-conviction collateral relief sense, is arguably "post-conviction habeas corpus renamed."'" Arguments over nomenclature should be avoided so long as the Act affords the relief formerly available by habeas corpus in this limited context." Edmond v. State, 845 So.2d 701, 702(¶ 3)(Miss.Ct.App.2003) (quoting Bell, *401 Habeas Corpus: The "Great Writ" in Mississippi State Courts, 58 Miss.L.J. 25, 28 (1988)). Trotter's application for relief is a motion for post-conviction relief and subject to the provisions of the Mississippi Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. Most claims for post-conviction relief are subject to a three-year statute of limitations. Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-5(2) (Supp.2004).

II. WHETHER TROTTER IS PROCEDURALLY BARRED FROM ASSERTING HIS ACTUAL INNOCENCE

¶ 9. The circuit court applied Mississippi Code Annotated Section 99-39-5(2) (Supp.2004) in deciding whether Trotter's claims for relief should be dismissed as time-barred. This statute reads:

A motion for relief under this article shall be made within three (3) years after the time in which the prisoner's direct appeal is ruled upon by the Supreme Court of Mississippi or, in case no appeal is taken, within three (3) years after the time for taking an appeal from the judgment of conviction or sentence has expired, or in case of a guilty plea, within three (3) years after entry of the judgment of conviction.

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Bluebook (online)
907 So. 2d 397, 2005 WL 351332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trotter-v-state-missctapp-2005.