Opinion
2023-DR-00503-SCT
01-16-2025
ANTHONY CARR Petitioner v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Respondent
EN BANC ORDER
ROBERT P. CHAMBERLIN, JUSTICE
Before the en banc Court are three motions. The first is Anthony Carr's Ex Parte Motion for 90-Day Enlargement of Time to File Successive Post-Conviction Petition, the State of Mississippi's response, and Carr's reply, which he filed without leave of Court. See M.R.A.P. 27(a). The second is Carr's Ex Parte Motion for Final, 30-Day Enlargement of Time to File Successive Post-Conviction Petition, the State's response, and Carr's reply, which he again filed without leave of Court. See M.R.A.P. 27(a). And the third is Carr's Ex Parte Motion for 14-Day Additional Enlargement of Time to File Successive PostConviction Petition, the State's response, and Carr's supplement.
Carr's successive post-conviction petition was due on or before August 20, 2024. Order, Carr v. State, No. 2023-DR-00503-SCT, at *2 (Miss. June 21, 2024). Since then, he has moved for three extensions. The State objects.
As these proceedings were pending, the Court decided Ronk v. State, 391 So.3d 785 (Miss. 2024). Ronk "overrule[d] Grayson[v. State, 118 So.3d 118 (Miss. 2013),] to the extent {Grayson} crafted an exception for ineffective-assistance-of-post-conviction-counsel claims in death-penalty cases." Id. at 794. Based on Ronk, the State returned to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi and moved to lift the district court's stay under Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269, 125 S.Ct. 1528, 161 L.Ed.2d 440 (2005), which had allowed Carr to proceed here. Carr v. Cain, No. 3:19-CV-274-DMB, 2024 WL 1258204, at *1 (N.D. Miss. Mar. 25, 2024). The district court declined. Id. at *2. It said that "[b]ecause Grayson created a constitutional right to effective postconviction counsel in death penalty cases in Mississippi, [it] [had] determined that Carr's allegations of ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel constituted good cause for his failure to exhaust Claim #2 under [Rhines]." Id. at * 1. At that time, however, Rank's mandate had not issued; successive post-conviction proceedings were ongoing; and no authority warranted lifting the stay. Id. at *2.
Now that Rank's mandate issued on August 23, 2024, we find that these proceedings should be stayed for ninety days to allow the State to return to the federal district court and move to lift the stay and for any other appropriate relief.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that this matter is stayed until April 16, 2025, to allow the State to return to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi and move to lift the stay and for any other appropriate relief.
SO ORDERED.
AGREE: RANDOLPH, C.J., COLEMAN, P.J., MAXWELL, CHAMBERLIN, ISHEE, GRIFFIS, SULLIVAN AND BRANNING, JJ.
DISAGREE: KING, P.J.
KING, P.J., OBJECTS TO THE ORDER WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN STATEMENT.
KING, PRESIDING JUSTICE, OBJECTING TO THE ORDER WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN STATEMENT:
¶ 1. Because" [p] ost-conviction proceedings are a critical stage of the death-penalty appeal process[,]" and because "[o]ur laws provide that an accused shall have 'representation available at every critical stage of the proceeding against him where a substantial right may be affected[,]'" I continue to emphatically dissent from this Court's decision to abrogate the ineffective-assistance-of-post-conviction-counsel exception to the Mississippi Uniform PostConviction Collateral Relief Act's (UPCCRA) bars. Ronk v. State, 391 So.3d 785, 815 (Miss. 2024) (Kitchens, P.J., dissenting) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Grayson v. State, 118 So.3d 118, 126 (Miss. 2013) (overruled by Ronk, 391 So.3d at 785). Accordingly, I disagree with the Court's order to stay these proceedings to allow the State to return to the federal district court to move to lift the stay and would instead grant Anthony Carr's motion for a ninety-day extension to file his petition for post-conviction relief.