Isaac v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseAundray Isaac filed his complaint against the State in 2012, seeking compensation for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. During the early morning hours of March 11, 1991, a towel draped over the front door of Shannon Jackson’s apartment caught fire. The towel had been placed there purposefully for privacy, as covering the windows at the top of the door prevented bypassers from seeing up the interior stairwell just beyond the door. That night, Jackson was at home and upstairs with her and Isaac’s two young children. Isaac lived at the apartment with Jackson but had spent most of the night at issue away from the apartment. He knocked on the door after midnight, but, though she was home, Jackson refused to let him in. Jackson testified that the two of them had agreed that “If he was going to continue to live there, he was going to be in before 12:00 or no later than 12:00.” Isaac testified at his wrongful conviction trial that he set the towel on fire, but he maintained that it was an accident. Isaac would be charged with arson, and convicted by jury. In 1994, the Supreme Court determined that the State had failed to prove the malice and willfulness elements of first-degree arson beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore had produced insufficient evidence to support Isaac’s conviction. The Court reversed Isaac’s conviction and discharged him from the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He then sued for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. The trial court found in favor of the State and dismissed Isaac’s complaint with prejudice. Aggrieved, Isaac appealed. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed.
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