I am Tom Freeland, a lawyer in Oxford, Mississippi. The picture in the header is my law office. I'm on Twitter as NMissC

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BlogRoll

Another Headline: “Pardoned Murderer Lists Haley Barbour As Reference On Resume” (WREG Memphis)

Folks may remember Mr. Ozment, the murderer Haley Barbour pardoned who was last seen being served with process in Wyoming.

It seems a Memphis TV station has obtained his resume.  The headline tells the best part of the story (and, if one calls the number listed for Gov. Barbour, you get the voicemail for [...]

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Pardonee David Gatlin has gone to Alabama to live with the AntiChrist

“It’s not safe. David is a cold-blooded murderer and he’s living with a self-proclaimed antichrist. That’s dangerous,” said Tammy Gatlin’s sister, Tiffany Ellis-Brewer.

The WLBT headline (to the story with the quote by family member of a murder victim, above) is hilarious:

Pardoned Trustee Living With “AntiChrist” in Alabama

This is a strange one.  A [...]

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The Mississippi Supreme Court just stayed the Pardons Case and set en banc hearing for 2/9

Briefs are to be filed by February 7th, en banc argument (that is, before the entire court) on February 9th, and the lower court proceeding before Judge Green is stayed.

I have never heard of an en banc argument set just over a week out!

Tom Fortner seems to have got their attention.

Update:

[...]

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What happened at the first pardon hearing (the transcript just became available)

As I noted, Tom Fortner has sought an emergency appeal of the pardon case, which Kingfish has up.  His papers present an elaboration of the argument he made in his motion to dismiss, and are worth reading for that.

Also worth reading are the exhibits, which include a number of documents from the circuit [...]

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A look at the AG’s pleadings in the pardons case

Here are the complaint, motion for a temporary restraining order, and the order granting the TRO in the pardons case, from Attorney General Hood’s webpage.

I would have thought that, to get relief– which requires showing likelihood of success– the attorney general would have had to show that a specific defendant got a pardon and he didn’t advertise [...]

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The New York Times looks inside the Barbour pardons

“Maggi and I wanted to begin by thanking you and Marsha for a lovely and special lunch at the Mansion last Tuesday,” began a letter to the governor by the family friend of Doug Hindman, one pardon applicant. “It was very interesting to see the historical quilt upstairs.”

“Please tell Uncle Haley that one [...]

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Kingfish moves the pardon story along

Kingfish earlier posted a couple of times about a Hinds County pardon case involving Douglas Hindman, who was caught in a TV-show sponsored sting involving investigators posing as early-teen girls and setting up meetings with guys seeking sex.  Now he’s pushing that along, by looking at the other cases that arose out of the [...]

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AP reports that pardon files don’t exist

The leded begins “pardon files are missing” but reading the article carefully, I think what it says is “The state responded to a public records request for pardon files by saying there aren’t any.”   Here’s Holbrook Mohr’s story:

Pardon files are missing or don’t exist for four convicted killers and another man who [...]

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My least favorite article about the pardons hearing….

Mississippi Supreme Court justice Taylor McElroy was a circuit judge and before that mayor of Oxford.  His knowledge of politics (particularly local varieties) was long and deep.  About newspaper coverage of court proceedings, he commented, “They always send a sports reporter to cover court.”

I’m not sure of the usual beat of R.L. Nave [...]

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Sad news from the Northern District of Mississippi

I am sad to report the death of W. Allen Pepper, Jr., who was a United States District Judge here in Mississippi beginning in 1999.  Prior to that, he had practiced for thirty years in Cleveland (during which time he served as a public defender many years).  He was graduated from Ole Miss law [...]

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