Batiste v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseBobby Batiste was convicted of capital murder for which he was sentenced to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court later granted Batiste the right to file a petition for post-conviction relief (PCR) ("Batiste II") because the Court determined he was entitled to a hearing regarding alleged communications between bailiffs and/or others and members of the jury. During the hearings on Batiste’s PCR petition, a motion requesting the recusal of the trial judge was made, arguing that the judge's own memory of an alleged conversation with a juror could be relied on in witness-credibility determinations while evaluating the merits underlying the PCR petition. This motion was denied and, ultimately, the PCR petition was denied. Batiste appealed both the denial of the motion to recuse as well as the denial of the PCR petition on the merits. In September 2020, having found that evidentiary questions remained relating to the recusal issue, the Supreme Court declined to address the merits of the PCR petition and remanded the case (Batiste III). On November 20, 2020, the circuit court held a hearing pursuant to the Supreme Court's directions for remand in Batiste III “for the limited purpose of allowing the trial judge to hear such evidence as is necessary to allow him to clear up any ambiguity and to determine if the alleged conversation did, in fact, take place ‘during trial,’ and, if it did, whether the conversation is alleged to have occurred on or off the record.” After that hearing, the circuit court found that the alleged discussion between the court and the witness took place after the guilt and the Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s denial of Batiste’s motion to recuse and his PCR petition.
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