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Thread: Stephen Elliot Powers - Mississippi Death Row

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    Stephen Elliot Powers - Mississippi Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    Was convicted in 2000 for the 1998 murder of Beth Lafferty, 27, of Hattiesburg.

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On July 3, 2007, Powers filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/mis...cv00020/58727/

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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Stephen Elliot Powers v. State of Mississippi
    Date: August 19, 2021
    Citation: 2017-DR-00696-SCT
    The Re-Urged Motion to Stay Time to File Successive Post-Conviction Relief Petition is denied. All Justices Agree. Order entered 8/16/21.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/mississ...me-court/2021/
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    The Mississippi Supreme Court has issued two decisions related to Stephen Powers, UPHOLDING his conviction and death sentence, but REMANDING his case for discovery on access to forensic evidence.

    Post-conviction denial: https://courts.ms.gov/images/Opinions/CO168491.pdf

    Remand for discovery: https://courts.ms.gov/appellatecourt...=86434&a=N&s=2

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    A man on Mississippi's death row continues legal battle after court deals another blow

    By Lici Berveridge
    Mississippi Clarion Ledger

    A man who has spent nearly 23 years on Mississippi's death row was denied another bite of the judicial apple, but he is not out of legal options.

    The state Supreme Court denied Stephen Elliot Powers' request for post-conviction relief, upholding earlier rulings, including one handed down a year ago, in which Supreme Court justices overturned a longstanding precedent that says death row prisoners must be mentally competent for all phases of their legal proceedings.

    Powers, now 54, was convicted of capital murder in December 2000 for the June 1998 death and attempted rape of 27-year-old Elizabeth "Beth" Lafferty at her Hattiesburg home. He was 29 when he shot Lafferty five times — three shots at close range to the back of her head, one under her chin and one in a temple.

    In Mississippi, to be charged with capital murder, the homicide must have been committed in addition to an underlying crime — which in Powers' case was the attempted rape.

    Powers doesn't deny shooting Lafferty, but he says he never tried to rape her, even though Lafferty was found lying face down on the floor with her legs spread open, nude from the waist down except for a pair of shorts wrapped around one ankle.

    He said he and Lafferty were struggling over the gun when he accidentally shot her.

    Powers' mental competence remains at issue

    Powers has filed numerous petitions with state and federal courts to have his case reheard based on a number of issues, including mental incompetence to continue to work on his defense after he suffered two strokes and bleeding aneurysm in his brain. Prison officials have not released medical reports on inmates due to HIPAA laws.

    The state, however, disagrees with Power's position. In a June 2022 ruling, Supreme Court members overturned a longstanding precedent that previously required prisoners on death row in Mississippi to be mentally competent during the post-conviction review process.

    The court reaffirmed its position this month by denying Powers' request to overturn last year's ruling.

    Last year's decision was not unanimous. Three of the state's Supreme Court justices dissented from the majority opinion. The same three, including Judges Leslie King and David Ishee, dissented from the latest court ruling.

    Dissenting judges say mental competence appropriate at all stages

    Judge James Kitchens wrote in his dissent of the most recent court ruling that he disagreed with the 2022 ruling and disagrees now that a prisoner on death row does not have to be mentally competent in post-conviction proceedings.

    "First, as I expressed in my separate statement to this Court’s previous order, we should not forsake our well-established precedent that a defendant “must be competent at all stages of the criminal process,” including post-conviction proceedings," he wrote. "For this reason alone, this case should be remanded for a competency hearing. Second, looking to Powers’s remaining arguments, I would find that he has made a substantial showing that is sufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing on whether his post-conviction counsel were ineffective in advocating the Batson issue."

    The "Batson issue" is based on a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which a prosecutor may not use a peremptory challenge of a potential juror based solely on race in a criminal case.

    Powers maintains his trial attorneys did not object when the state dismissed potential Black jurors. In addition, some of the jurors knew Lafferty or others involved in the trial, from family members to police officers to the prosecuting attorneys.

    The justices agreed with an earlier ruling which said the prospective jurors were not ruled out on race alone. The court also examined the jury selection and noted that the while prospective jurors were not questioned individually, they were asked to raise their hands if there was a conflict as outlined by the trial judge. Powers at the time did not object to the chosen jurors.

    "At the end of jury selection, Powers had three unused peremptory challenges," Justice Josiah Coleman wrote for the court majority in a 164-page ruling. "Powers affirmed that he had had input in selecting the jury and that he was satisfied with the jury’s composition."

    Powers' case isn't over. He has other state and federal options


    In 2005 and 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Powers' appeal. Another case was filed in federal court, but was put hold in 2017 while Powers continues to seek relief in state court.

    That relief hasn't been in the stars for Powers, but he still has another chance to make his case in the state Supreme Court. The justices are allowing Powers' attorneys to file a response to the court's decision.

    The attorneys must file a response by July 17.

    They also supported in part a motion asking the court to compel Hattiesburg Police Department to disclose what evidence pertaining to Lafferty's murder is still in the department's possession.

    Mississippi code says, "Upon written request by the defendant, the state shall prepare an inventory of biological evidence that has been preserved in connection with the defendant's criminal case." The justices ruled the word "state" in this context includes law enforcement agencies.

    Lafferty's parents, Mike and Diane Lafferty, said in an earlier story they would never get over their daughter's brutal death and will continue to fight for justice — and the death penalty — for her killer.

    "We have already agreed, my son, my wife and I, we've got nothing to lose at this point," Mike Lafferty said in October of 2019. "We'll go the whole hog if they come to us to make a deal."

    Mike Lafferty died later in 2019 without getting the justice he sought for his daughter.

    https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2023/06/16/mississippi-supreme-court-rules-against-death-row-inmate-stephen-elliot-powers/70314189007/
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  6. #6
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Rehearing denied by the MSC 9/28/23.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/mississ...696-sct-0.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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