Stokes v. State
| Docket Number: | 2007-CP-00472-COA | |
| Court of Appeals: |
Opinion Link Opinion Date: 06-24-2008 Opinion Author: KING, C.J. Holding: Affirmed |
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| Additional Case Information: |
Topic: Post-conviction relief - Jurisdiction - Appeal of administrative agency decision Judge(s) Concurring: LEE AND MYERS, P.JJ., IRVING, CHANDLER, GRIFFIS, BARNES, ISHEE, ROBERTS AND CARLTON, JJ. Procedural History: Dismissal; PCR Nature of the Case: CIVIL - POST-CONVICTION RELIEF |
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| Trial Court: |
Date of Trial Judgment: 02-20-2007 Appealed from: LOWNDES COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT Judge: James T. Kitchens, Jr. Disposition: MOTION TO RECONSIDER DISMISSED Case Number: 2006-0011-CV1 |
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| Party Name: | Attorney Name: | |||
| Appellant: | DEREK MAURICE STOKES |
DEREK MAURICE STOKES (PRO SE) |
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| Appellee: | STATE OF MISSISSIPPI | OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: LAURA HOGAN TEDDER |
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Synopsis provided by:  If you are interested in subscribing to the weekly synopses of all Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals hand downs please contact Tammy Upton in the MLI Press office. |
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| Topic: | Post-conviction relief - Jurisdiction - Appeal of administrative agency decision |
| Summary of the Facts: | Derek Stokes was arrested for possession of a firearm by a felon and incarcerated in Lauderdale County on November 1, 2001. Stokes was detained in the Lauderdale County Detention Center for approximately 400 days from November 4, 2001, to December 9, 2002. On December 9, 2002, the court sentenced Stokes to three years. On December 5, 2003, Stokes pled guilty to possession of a controlled substance. He was then sentenced to ten years to run consecutively to the sentence he was already serving. Stokes received a 400-day credit toward his combined thirteen-year sentence. However, Stokes maintained that he should have received a 400-day credit toward each individual sentence. Stokes filed a motion for post-conviction relief and a motion for credit for jail time. The trial court informed Stokes that he had to exhaust his administrative remedies. Stokes initiated the grievance process through MDOC’s Administrative Remedy Program. The Administrative Remedy Program’s staff denied his request for relief because records indicated that 400 days of jail time had already been credited to Stokes’s sentence. Stokes appealed this decision by filing a motion for credit for time served in the Lowndes County Circuit Court. The trial court reviewed the motion and found that Stokes should have filed his motion in the county in which his incarceration facility was located. Stokes then filed a motion to reconsider which the court dismissed. Stokes appeals. |
| Summary of Opinion Analysis: | Stokes argues that the trial court had jurisdiction to grant him credit for the 400 days served and that the trial court erred in failing to reconsider his motion for credit for time served. If this were a motion for post-conviction relief, jurisdiction would be proper in the circuit court where the conviction was obtained which was Lowndes County. Instead, Stokes is appealing the decision of an administrative agency. As a result, jurisdiction is proper in the county where the defendant resides, which in this case would be Stokes’s county of incarceration which is Marion County. In addition, Stokes’s appeal was untimely since it was not filed within thirty days after receipt of the Administrative Remedy Program’s final decision. |
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