The Mississippi Supreme Court is seeking public comment on proposed changes to the state’s Rules of Criminal Procedure following an 11-year process of review and redrafting.
The deadline for comment from the bench, bar and the general public is Nov. 7.
Mississippi College School of Law professor Matt Steffey, who served on the study committee that came up with the changes, says the new rules will make criminal procedure in Mississippi more uniform.
“Some of these rules merely restate current practice, and some change current practice a good deal,” Steffey said. “What they will definitely do is standardize the process from court to court and place to place across Mississippi.”
The new rules will also provide comprehensiveness for the judiciary, outlining precisely what happens to defendants from the time they are arrested all the way to sentencing.
“This is not going to change the way police interact with citizens or the way they investigate cases,” Steffey said. “(The rules) will pick up once the decision to file charges has been made.”
That includes some adjusted provisions for search warrants and arrest warrants, and rules on initial appearances. Under Mississippi law, someone being held is supposed to appear before a judge within 48 hours.
Steffey said the new rules include significant changes in practices for preliminary hearings, at which defendants may dispute charges made against them.
“In the area of plea bargains, you’ll see significant differences,” he said. “Also in the way information is exchanged in discovery or pre-trial.”
Some other areas where the new rules might alter previous procedure include post-trial motions, posting bail, and changes to pre-trial procedure from initial appearances to arraignment.
This is the second round of public comment, Steffey said, in a long process that saw an initial round of study ending in early 2012, then opened for comment. The newly proposed rules were carefully reviewed over the past four years.
The study committee included former judges, practicing judges, prosecuting and defense attorneys, an assistant to the attorney general, and Steffey, who did legal research and reporting for the committee.
Supreme Court Justice Ann Lamar, who is retiring at the end of the year, chaired the committee, which reviewed 34 proposed rule changes.
According to the Supreme Court website, the purpose of the uniform rules is to “assure just and speedy determination of criminal proceedings”; to simplify procedure and ensure fairness in administration; to “eliminate unjustifiable delay and expense”; and to “protect the rights of individuals while protecting the public.”
Steffey said the committee was keenly aware of problems that existed within the system, such as unreasonably long waits for judicial procedure in some cases, and sought to directly address them.
“One such area was the practice of bonding companies issuing bond that only covered a defendant from arrest to indictment, then asked them to pony up another fee or otherwise return to jail,” Steffey said. “The committee wanted to address what they saw as exploitive bonding practices.”
The review and new rules were needed, Steffey said, because “a much, much larger and more complex criminal justice system exists today than when the initial rules were created.”
With overcrowded jails and overloaded dockets in most court systems, he said, there are more ways for people to fall between the cracks.
“Part of that is out of our control,” he said, “but at least we can try to make sure that cases are processed in a timely fashion, in a fair manner, and try to plug the holes.”
Public comments should be filed in writing and submitted to the Clerk of the Supreme Court, P.O. Box 249, Jackson, MS 39205-0249.
For a link to the 181-page proposal go to http://bit.ly/2f5nwwf.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
