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382 So. 2d 1089

Brown v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided April 30, 1980

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1980-04-30

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently April 2002

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1980-04-30

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¶1ON MOTION TO SET ASIDE JUDGMENT OF CONVICTION AND REMAND FOR A NEW TRIAL

SUGG, Justice for the Court:

¶2Cynthia Brown was convicted in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County for forgery and sentenced to twelve (12) years in the penitentiary. Defendant timely perfected her appeal to this Court by filing an appeal bond on August 17, 1977.

¶3The record was not filed in this case and on March 27, 1979, the Attorney General filed a motion to affirm defendant’s conviction. The motion was sustained on April 16, 1979. On May 15, 1979, we sustained defendant’s motion to rescind affirmation of conviction and granted defendant thirty (30) days in which to file a transcript or a bill of exceptions.

¶4Defendant filed a motion to set aside the judgment of conviction and to remand for a new trial. She alleged in her motion that she is unable to file a transcript of the testimony at her trial because the court reporter’s notes have been lost and, because of passage of time, it is impossible to reconstruct the testimony by a bill of exceptions.

¶5The Attorney General filed a response in which he asserts:

Due to circumstances beyond the control of the official court reporter and through no fault on her part or on the part of appellant, her counsel, or the state’s attorney, the notes and/or tapes of the proceedings at trial were lost and cannot be found after diligent search.
Due to the passage of time since the 1977 trial of this case, it is impossible to reconstruct the record by a bill of exceptions.

¶6The Attorney General then suggests that justice requires reversal of the conviction and a remand for a new trial.

¶7Under the circumstances set forth above, we hold defendant is entitled to a reversal of her conviction and to a retrial on the indictment filed against her.

¶8REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR A NEW TRIAL.

All Justices concur.
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