Death row inmate given OK to appeal
By William Moore
The Daily Journal
JACKSON – A former Mississippi State University student convicted of capital murder in 2008 will be able to ask for a new trial, the state’s highest court ruled Thursday.
Bobby Batiste appealed his conviction to the Mississippi Supreme Court, citing 16 alleged irregularities during his 2009 trial in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court. One of the allegations was that bailiffs’ comments to jurors could have swayed them.
In a sworn affidavit, a juror said a bailiff told her the reason the jury was all white was because “black people will not consider the death penalty.” A second juror said they heard the same comment, but could not recall who said it.
The Supreme Court agreed that the comments could have affected the impartiality of the jury. The high court did not order a new trial, but gave Batiste permission to file a petition for post conviction relief in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court.
Batiste was convicted of the murder and robbery of his roommate Andreas Galanis in a trial in late October 2009 and was sentenced to death. He appealed, but the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence in the spring of 2013.
http://djournal.com/news/death-row-i...-ok-to-appeal/
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