Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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This one goes into the “you've GOT to be kidding me” category.

Lee County Chancery Court Judge Talmadge Littlejohn jailed Oxford lawyer Danny Lampley on Wednesday for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in open court. Here is Patsy Brumfield's story, complete with a mug-shot of the Criminal Lampley.

Here is the contempt order courtesy of Tom Freeland (NMC). Here is the NMC post on the Criminal Lampley's treason. Here is Anderson's post about the incident involving the Criminal Lampley.

Don't think it's criminal to refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Me neither. Lampley was exercising his Constitutional right to refrain from declaring his allegiance to the flag or to the U.S.A.

We don't live in Soviet Russia. In fact, Russians don't live in Soviet Russia.

How in the name of God's Green Earth a judge with a college degree, a law degree and some amount of experience as a judge in the State of Mississippi could think that he can force feed the Pledge of Allegiance down someone's throat is beyond me. Judge Littlejohn can lead the Pledge in his courtroom until the cows come home. But if someone in the courtroom refuses to join in, that's just too bad.

If anyone should know Constitutional rights and basic notions of freedoms, it's judges.

And don't even think that this is about the meaning of Lampley's refusal or whether you agree with it. This is about Constitutionally protected rights that are not checked at the door of Judge Littlejohn's courtroom.

Judge Littlejohn's conduct was ignorant and inexcusable. I hope that Judge John Toney and the Commission on Judicial Performance are already looking at this.  

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I previously wrote about the recent $3.3 million verdict in a Rankin County Circuit Court 18-wheeler wrongful death case where a drunk trucker ran a red light and killed someone. Here is a copy of the judgment in the case, as well as the final order dismissing the co-defendant.

The jury's verdict was for $3,333,189.00. It was a general verdict form, so there was no break-down of the verdict into separate categories. The judgment states that $612,500 was previously paid to the plaintiff on behalf of the losing defendants (Joe Ed Carter and M&A Trucking, Inc.). Therefore, the Court reduced the verdict to $2,720,689 and the judgment was for that amount. The case was filed in 2000, so the tort reform caps do not apply to the judgment.

I do not know what any potential appeal issues are, but Judge Samac Richardson is not reversed often and the plaintiff's attorney (John Toney) is very respected in the legal community. Also, Rankin County juries are as conservative as they get. I would be very surprised if this case is reversed on appeal. 

Here is a link to the Mississippi Department of Corrections' profile on Mr. Carter. It states that Mr. Carter was sentenced to 20 years in prison for vehicular homicide and 15 years for aggravated assault.

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The $3.3 million verdict in Rankin County last week is confirmed. It was an 18-wheeler case where a drunk truck driver ran a red light on highway 49 in Florence. The truck driver pleaded guilty to DUI homicide. The case was a wrongful death suit on behalf of the family of a nineteen-year-old passenger. It was a pre-tort reform case, so the $1 million cap on non-economic damages does not apply. The jury was eleven whites and one African-American. There were ten women on the jury and two police officers. The average age of the jury was approximately 34. The trial judge was Judge Samac Richardson.

John Toney represented the plaintiffs. The defense lawyers were Jack Price of Wise Carter, Ed Taylor of Daniel Coker and Walter Dukes from Gulfport.

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Someone forwarded me an email from Friday that stated that a Rankin County jury returned a $3.3 million verdict in a wrongful death case on Thursday. Plaintiff's attorney was reported to be John Toney. I do not have any other details at this time.

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The best judges are those that endear themselves to the lawyers practicing before them, even when they are ruling against them. Judge Robert Goza was that kind of judge. Judge Goza died Saturday at the age of 76. After retiring from the bench he practiced law with Copeland Cook. Tuesday's Clarion-Ledger had this article in which Judge Goza was remembered: 

"He was senior circuit judge when I came on and took me under his wing," former Circuit Judge John Toney said. "He had a unique way of keeping a common touch. He would take his time to treat the defendants with kindness and respect. He'd even reach over the bench to shake their hands, even if he'd sentenced them to a long time."

"I presented hundreds of cases before him, hundreds," former district attorney John Kitchens said. "He had a way of calming down a young, exuberant district attorney.

"I remember I had one case in Canton - this was early on - where a defendant, a young guy, had shot another guy, and Judge Goza sentenced him to three years. When Judge Goza came out of the courtroom, I stepped out and asked him, 'Judge, why did you only give him three years?' I was being argumentative.

"And he said to me, 'The indictment doesn't say John Kitchens versus the defendant. It says State of Mississippi versus the defendant. Your job is to present the state's case, and mine is to sentence. Let's not forget that,' " Kitchens said. "He commanded respect. But he was very nice about it."

My practice before Judge Goza was limited to one case after his retirement in which he was specially appointed by the Supreme Court. He was extremely nice to the attorneys practicing before him regardless of which side they represented or how he was going to rule. When a judge has the demeanor that Judge Goza had, the parties understand that they got a fair trial, regardless of whether they won. I also had a case against Judge Goza while he was in private practice. He was just as nice in that setting and insisted that I call him "Bob" instead of "Judge Goza." He will be missed.