Mississippi Criminal and Family Law Blog

Don’t Overindulge on the Holiday Eggnog

Published on: November 28, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is an exciting period filled with friends, family, and festivities of all kinds and varieties. It is very common for people to travel long distances to spend time with their family to celebrate the holidays.

There is no denying the holiday season is a joyous time and that oftentimes reconnecting with old friends can lead to more parties and gatherings in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, as with any time of year where back-to-back parties occur more frequently, the likelihood of drinking and driving also experiences an increase. Here are some facts about DUI’s and the Holiday Season that will serve you well as you try to stay safe this year.

Drinking and Driving Increases During the Holiday Season

“You Are the Father!” – Establishing Paternity in Mississippi

Published on: November 23, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

Paternity means having a legally recognized father. Establishing paternity is very important in family law cases and can be a huge benefit to both the father and the child. For example, establishing paternity can prevent the mother from giving the child up for adoption without the father’s consent, it can help secure financial support for the child in the form of child support, and it can help a father get custody or visitation with his child. Establishing paternity can also ensure that the child receives inheritance or social security benefits from their father. There are several ways to establish paternity, and they are all discussed below. But first, we need to talk about the different types of fathers.

What Makes a Father?

There are different types of fathers under the law. If a child is born to a married couple, the husband at the time of the child’s birth is called the “legal father.” This means that the child is legally recognized as the child of that man in the eyes of the law. This has nothing to do with whether that man is actually the biological father of the child, it only matters that the man was married to the mother of the child at the time of the child’s birth. For example, if a married woman gets pregnant as a result of an affair, her husband is recognized as the father of that child under the law until proven otherwise.

Proving Adultery in a Mississippi Divorce Case

Published on: November 21, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

Every divorce is a stressful process, but divorces stemming from adultery might come with the most heartache and pain. Adultery is one of the 12 grounds for fault-based divorce, and one of the biggest causes of divorce in the United States.

How is Adultery Proven?

Mississippi law defines adultery as “voluntary sexual intercourse on the part of either spouse with a person other than his or her own spouse.” Proving adultery can often be difficult. It is extremely rare for one spouse to be caught in the act of committing adultery, and it is unlikely that your spouse will admit to having an affair. Instead, adultery is most often proved by other evidence. This means that to obtain a divorce based on adultery, you must be able to show the court that your spouse had (1) an adulterous inclination (flirtatious manners) and (2) a reasonable opportunity (a private place and time) to act on that adulterous inclination.

Can You Get a Pardon for Marijuana Possession in Mississippi?

Published on: November 18, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

Most of us can agree that marijuana is not a dangerous drug. In fact, alcohol is far more deadly, causing numerous DUI crashes each year. In addition, people can literally drink themselves to death – while it is essentially impossible to overdose on marijuana. Finally, marijuana is nowhere near as addictive as some of the other “harder” drugs, and users tend to develop a dependency that is similar to a caffeine addiction at best. For all of these reasons and many others, numerous states have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

However, Mississippi currently only makes it legal to possess and use marijauna if you have a medical license. Many are calling for the state to join many others and fully decriminalize marijuana – making it legal for recreational users to possess, use, and grow the drug as well. Despite the fact that this will probably happen in the near future, there are many Mississippi residents who currently have criminal records due to simple marijuana possession. But could you get a pardon for this offense and clear your name?

What is Simple Marijuana Possession in Mississippi?

How Does Visitation Work After Divorce or Separation?

Published on: November 16, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

Visitation is the time a child spends with a parent who does not have custody. Visitation is not a type of custody; it is a separate type of arrangement. If one parent gets sole custody after a separation or divorce, the other parent will have visitation with their child or children.

Parent Visitation

In a best-case scenario, the parents can come to an agreement about a visitation schedule. This agreement should be in writing and agreed to by both parents. The agreement may cover weekday and weekend visitation, summer visitation, and visitation over school breaks like Spring Break and Thanksgiving. It is common for the noncustodial parent to have visitation over the holidays and school breaks. If the parents cannot work together to come to an agreement, the court will enter a visitation order based on what would be in the child’s best interest. This order will be very specific and will explicitly lay out the dates and times that the noncustodial parent will have visitation, where and how they should conduct pickup and drop-off, and who pays the cost of transporting the child.

What Happens When You Burn Down a Church in Mississippi?

Published on: November 14, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

Churches are important religious symbols for many Mississippi communities, and seeing a church burn to the ground can be a truly disturbing sight. Unfortunately, churches are also common targets for arsonists. Whether these individuals wish to make political statements or simply engage in mischief, they face serious consequences for these crimes. But will the authorities charge higher penalties compared to the arson of less symbolic buildings, like offices or houses? What are the consequences of burning down a church in Mississippi, and how can you defend yourself if you have been charged with this crime?

Examples of Church Arson in Mississippi

On November 8th, it was reported that a manhunt was underway for a suspected arsonist who had set fires in two churches near Jackson. In total, the individual set seven fires during a short period of time. One of the churches burned to the ground, and a baseball diamond at Jackson State University was also damaged. Fortunately, no injuries were reported – although one of the church elders was severely traumatized after watching his religious center burn to the ground. The church that was destroyed had just been renovated earlier in the year. Initially, authorities offered a $5,000 reward for anyone with information that led to an arrest.

What Happens if Your Search Warrant Goes Missing in Mississippi?

Published on: November 11, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

As any defense lawyer worth their salt will tell you, police officers need a search warrant if they want to enter your home to search your property. If they enter your home anyway without a search warrant, their actions will likely be deemed unconstitutional in court. This means that anything that results from that search cannot be used against you, and any related charges must be dropped. For example, if the police search your home without a warrant and find an unlicensed firearm or a bag of illicit drugs, they cannot press charges related to these alleged offenses.

With all that said, “no-knock warrants” allow police to sidestep this important constitutional protection in some situations. The very concept of a no-knock warrant is highly controversial and a matter of intense debate throughout the nation. Critics not only point out the unconstitutionality of these actions, but they also highlight the fact that innocent people can be harmed or even killed by police officers who enter homes and assault alleged suspects. There have been many past instances where victims have been shot or suffocated after a no-knock warrant.

What makes this situation even more controversial in Mississippi is the fact that many search warrants mysteriously go missing after the fact. As a recent report pointed out, this makes scrutinizing the legitimacy of no-knock warrants much more difficult than it needs to be.

Property Division in a Mississippi Divorce Case

Published on: November 8, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

Division of marital property is often a source of contention for many couples seeking divorce. Depending on how long the marriage lasted, the amount of property belonging to the couple may be small or large. But generally, the longer the marriage, the more property or “stuff” the couple has collected together. Mississippi courts divide property based on “equitable distribution,” which just means that property is divided in a way that is fair to both parties.

What is Equitable Distribution?

Equitable distribution is a method of property division that focuses on fairness. This means that assets are not necessarily divided 50/50, but are divided based on what would be fair to each spouse. It is the judge’s role to decide what would be a fair split of the property based on each spouse’s situation. Equitable does not mean equal, it just means a fair division. There are

The New Parole Laws Just Aren’t Working

Published on: November 4, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

According to Mississippi Today, one year after a law expanded parole eligibility to more people incarcerated in Mississippi prisons, the state’s parole grant rate has declined by more than a third, a sign criminal justice reform advocates say show the law isn’t being fully implemented. Senate Bill 2795, known as the Mississippi Earned Parole Eligibility Act, became law in July 2021 with the goal of giving more people the opportunity to be heard by the Mississippi Parole Board and potentially be released from prison. As a result, about 5,700 additional people are expected to become parole eligible within the next five years, according to an estimate in the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force’s January report.

FWD.us, a criminal justice and immigration reform group, supported SB 2795. Once the law was implemented, results were encouraging; the parole grant rate climbed and the prison population rate declined to its lowest point in more than 20 years, the governor said. By November 2021, the parole grant rate reached a high of 93% and the board held over 1,000 parole hearings, according to numbers from the Mississippi Department of Corrections obtained by Mississippi Today. But soon after, parole rates and hearings began dropping each month. In July 2022, the most recent data available, the grant rate was 40% and the board held 633 hearings.

What are the Parole Rates as of Now?

What are the Different Types of Child Custody?

Published on: November 2, 2022 | by Vic Carmody Jr., P.A.

When parents separate or divorce, one of the main things they will have to figure out is how to share custody of their child or children. Parents can come to an agreement about how they want to share child custody, or they can leave it up to a judge to decide. Either way, the judge will have to look at what is in the child’s best interest to determine what type of custody arrangement would be best for the family. There are two types of child custody: physical custody and legal custody.

Physical Custody vs Legal Custody

Physical custody means which parent the child primarily lives with. Both parents can share physical custody, which means that the child spends a significant amount of time with each parent. Or one parent can have sole physical custody. Physical custody also determines which parent is making day to day decisions for the child.